Maritime safety: minimum level of training of seafarers

Pointing out that 80% of accidents at sea were caused by human error, the rapporteur called for minimum levels of training for seafarers. The amendments tabled aimed, among other aspects, to reduce the legal uncertainty which still existed as regards the mutual recognition of training certificates between Member States. The rapporteur therefore called for the creation of a European institute for the training of seafarers. Commissioner Kinnock firstly stressed that amending the 1994 Directive was preferable to drafting a new directive which would slow the procedure. He then pointed out that consistency needed to be ensured between the 1994 Directive, the new requirements of the IMO inserted in the STCW Convention and the common criteria for the recognition, in the European Union, of seafarers’ certificates issued by third countries.