On 19 June, the European Parliament and the Council (Member States) reached a first reading agreement on the revision of Directive 2008/106/EC on the minimum level of training of seafarers.

To recall, the European Commission put forward a proposal to revise this directive in September 2011. The main aim of the revision is to bring the existing Directive in line with the 2010 Manila amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW).

The Commission’s proposal suggested a one-to-one transposition of the Manila amendments into EU law, marginally adapting the STCW provision on watchkeeping to ensure consistency with Directive 1999/63/EC on working time for seafarers. In addition, the Commission’s proposal suggested that Member States should provide information on seafarers’ certificates to the Commission for statistical purposes.

The Council and the Parliament endorsed most of the Commission’s proposal, while making slight adjustments requiring the anonymisation of certain seafarers’ data and limiting the delegation of power to the Commission for the collection of statistical data.

The agreed text needs to be formally adopted by the European Parliament and by the Council before the new Directive can enter into force. This procedure is merely a formality and can be expected to take place after the summer.

Together with two proposals on the enforcement of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), the revision of Directive 2008/106/EC on the minimum level of training of seafarers, this Directive forms the Maritime Social Package, an EU initiative to promote maritime professions and improve working conditions of seafarers.

Source : INTERTANKO