Brussels, 09/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - By approving, last Thursday in Strasbourg, the report by Rosa Miguelez Ramos (ESP, Spanish), the European Parliament echoed the warning made by the International Labour Office (ILO) which, estimating, in 1997, at 24,000 the annual total of deaths of sea fishermen in the world and at 24 million, the serious accidents. At the Union level, the statistics available on accidents at sea (160 deaths and 2,527 injured in 1998) confirm that fishing is a very dangerous profession and a high risk sector.
Safety and health in the fishing sector are the object of recommendations from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) or even the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) conventions. Though the situation in practice is far from being satisfactory, underlines the EP. This is why the latter invites the recalcitrant Member States to ratify the Torremolinos Protocol and the International Convention on Standards for Training Seafarers, for the issuing and monitoring of patents (STCW-F Convention). The EP called on the Commission to accelerate the harmonisation of statistical data and notions relating to accidents at work provided by the Member States. The latter are invited to respect the various phases foreseen to collect European statistics on fishing accidents as well as for professional illnesses. Moreover, the Community Directives harmonising safety and health conditions onboard only apply to a part of the trawlers, are around 10% of the Community fleet, specify the MEPs who add that it is for this reason that most of the fishermen only have the protection enforced in the country of the flag. The Parliament calls on the Commission to present draft Directives aiming to overcome the failings in the Community standardising framework and insist for the carrying out of checks on onboard enforcement in terms of the safety and health of workers.
The Parliament calls on the Council to ensure that the 1993 and 2000 Directives, concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time, are applied in order to better ensure the protection of fishermen and avoid the frenetic pace of their activities. Concerning the rescue operation, the resolution approved calls for the obligatory use of ship position monitoring systems and invokes the implementation of the 1992 Directive on radiodiagniostic techniques and "telemedicine" in the aim of strengthening the coordination between the European emergency medical assistance centres. Among the others measures required are: - the progressive ban on fishing for ships of more than 20 years (except those that are in a perfect condition); - the continuation of cofinancing, by the Commission, the replacement of fishing ships of more than 20 years not answering the minimum standards of safety; - the development of a culture of safety in all the chain involved in fishing as well as the promotion of professional and continuous training campaigns (following Directive 91/103 and 92/29). In line with this, the MEPs denounced the worsening dangers due to the proliferation of flags of convenience. Finally, the Commission is invited to include in the regulation on the reform of the fishing policy, all the social aspects underlined by the resolution.
In 1998, the fifteen Member States recorded 1,347 accidents on fishing vessels, or an increase of 3.7% compared to 1996, indicates the EP. The most common types of accidents are the machinery breakdowns (33%), followed by shipwrecks (9%), beaching (9%) and collisions (7%). The human factors (fatigue, stress, lack of maintenance, routine, drug addiction or alcoholism), are at the root of 40% of accidents against 27% to technical factors (failures in warning systems and the fight against fires) and 16% due to external factors weather conditions). To these factors are added the economic considerations such as the reduction of staff and the increase in working hours.