On Tuesday 27 June, representatives from the European Parliament and Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU reached an agreement on the draft directive on the recognition of professional qualifications for inland navigation transport (see EUROPE 11494).
The different parties succeeded in reaching an agreement at the end of a fourth inter-institutional trialogue. The compromise reached will help speed up the legislative process for establishing a common certificated system for inland waterway transport professionals. Gesine Meissner (ALDE, Germany), rapporteur on the text at the European Parliament and in charge of negotiations with the Council of the EU, stated, “This will end the current patchwork of certificates on European rivers and help the sector dealing with its staff shortage”.
The compromise obtained will help all sector professionals, the sailors and commanders on board to display their skills by way of a single certificate. This will also apply to Rhineland waters, which is currently not the case. The new certificates will also help to gain promotion on the basis of skills and not just on the number of years spent in a given post.
Following a previous trialogue meeting, the representatives from the co-legislators also reached an agreement on transposition exemptions. Although all the states having inland waterways will be obliged to recognise the certificate, countries that do not have their navigable rivers connected to other member states will be exempt, subject to certain conditions, from transposing some of the directive’s provisions.
Ian Borg, the Maltese Transport minister welcomed this result and said, “Inland navigation is the most energy-efficient mode of transport and has great potential, (…). The single certificate system opens up new career opportunities and will hopefully give a boost to the whole sector”.
The compromise text is expected to be submitted for the examination and approval of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU (COREPER I) on Friday 30 June. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)