Strasbourg, 24/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament hopes to facilitate the mutual recognition of diplomas for sailors issued by the Member States of the EU. In its adoption on Wednesday, by a vast majority (619 in favour, 20 against, 3 abstentions), of the report by British Labour member Robert Evans, the Parliament approved a compromise obtained with the Council and the European Commission to allow the directive to be adopted at first reading (codecision). The Council must now formally approve of this compromise.
The objective of the proposal is to simplify the procedure whereby diplomas issued to sailors within the EU, whether they are nationals of a Member State or of a third country, are recognised, because the current Community procedure has been described as more binding than the one in place at international level. The compromise text adopted, however, calls for sailors to have a certain level of English, for safety reasons. The Member States must also take the necessary steps to prevent and penalise fraud in the certification procedure or in diplomas awarded. To this end, national competent authorities will be appointed to detect and fight these practices and to exchange information with the competent national authorities of other Member States.
For its part, the Commission must produce a report assessing the implementation of the directive no later than five years after it has entered into force, and propose “additional measures” if these prove necessary.