In its conclusions of 5 June 2003 on improving the image of Community shipping and attracting young people to the seafaring profession, the Council highlighted the necessity of fostering the professional mobility of seafarers within the European Union, with particular emphasis on recognition procedures for seafarers' certificates of competency, while ensuring thorough compliance with the requirements of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978 (the STCW Convention) in its up to date version.
(2)
Maritime transport is an intensively and rapidly developing sector of a particularly international character. Accordingly, in view of the increasing shortage of Community seafarers, the balance between supply and demand in personnel can be maintained more efficiently at the Community, rather than the national level. It is therefore essential that the common transport policy in the field of maritime transport be extended to facilitate the movement of seafarers within the Community.
(3)
As regards seafarers' qualifications, the Community has laid down minimum maritime education, training and certification requirements by way of Directive 2001/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the minimum level of training of seafarers (3). That Directive incorporates into Community law the international training, certification and watchkeeping standards laid down by the STCW Convention.
(4)
Directive 2001/25/EC provides that seafarers must hold a certificate of competency issued and endorsed by the competent authority of a Member State in accordance with that Directive and entitling the lawful holder thereof to serve on a ship in the capacity and perform the functions involved at the level of responsibility specified therein.
(5)
Under Directive 2001/25/EC, mutual recognition among Member States of certificates held by seafarers, whether or not nationals of a Member State, is subject to Directives 89/48/EEC (4) and 92/51/EEC (5) setting up, respectively, a first and a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training. Those Directives do not provide for the automatic recognition of formal qualifications of seafarers, as seafarers may be subject to compensation measures.
(6)
Each Member State should recognise any certificate and other evidence of formal qualifications issued by another Member State in accordance with Directive 2001/25/EC. Therefore, each Member State should permit a seafarer having acquired his/her certificate of competency in another Member State, satisfying the requirements of that Directive, to take up or to pursue the maritime profession for which he/she is qualified, without any prerequisites other than those imposed on its own nationals.
(7)
Since this Directive is aimed at facilitating the mutual recognition of certificates, it does not regulate the conditions concerning access to employment.
(8)
The STCW Convention specifies language requirements for seafarers. These requirements should be introduced into Community law to ensure effective communication on board ships and facilitate the free movement of seafarers within the Community.
(9)
Today, the proliferation of certificates of competency of seafarers obtained by fraud poses a serious danger to safety at sea and the protection of the marine environment. In most cases, holders of fraudulent certificates of competency do not meet the minimum certification requirements of the STCW Convention. These seafarers could easily be involved in maritime accidents.
(10)
Member States should therefore take and enforce specific measures to prevent and penalise fraudulent practices associated with certificates of competency as well as pursue their efforts within the IMO to achieve strict and enforceable agreements on the worldwide combating of such practices. The Committee on Safe Seas and the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (COSS) is an appropriate forum for exchanging information, experience and best practices in this respect.
(11)
Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 (6), established a European Maritime Safety Agency (the Agency), for the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety and prevention of pollution from ships. One of the tasks assigned to the Agency is to assist the Commission in the performance of any task assigned to it by Community legislation applicable to the training, certification and watchkeeping of ships' crews.
(12)
The Agency should therefore assist the Commission in verifying that Member States comply with the requirements laid down in this Directive and Directive 2001/25/EC.
(13)
The mutual recognition among Member States of certificates held by seafarers, whether or not nationals of a Member State, should no longer be subject to Directives 89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC, but should be governed by this Directive.
(14)
Directive 2001/25/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.
(15)
Since the objective of this Directive, namely the mutual recognition of the seafarers' certificates issued by the Member States, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(16)
In accordance with paragraph 34 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on better law-making (7), Member States are encouraged to draw up, for themselves and in the interest of the Community, their own tables, which will, as far as possible, illustrate the correlation between this Directive and their transposition measures, and to make those tables public,
