This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
Making fishing at sea a safer profession
Making fishing at sea a safer profession
Making fishing at sea a safer profession
It authorises EU countries to become party to the 1995 International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel (STCW-F), which came into force in 2012.
The STCW-F International Convention of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) sets out minimum standards for training, certification and watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel.
Eligible EU countries not currently party to the Convention should accede to it ‘within a reasonable time’, if possible before 23 May 2017.
It entered into force on 26 May 2015.
Fishing at sea is one of the most hazardous professions, and therefore appropriate training and qualifications are seen as essential to reduce the number of accidents.
The STCW-F Convention was the first to establish basic requirements on training, certification and watchkeeping for fishing vessel personnel on an international level. Previously, standards had been established by individual governments, often without reference to practices in other countries. As a result standards and procedures varied widely.
The STCW-F Convention is currently being reviewed with the aim of modernising its regulation, reflecting the current situation in the fishing industry and promoting the accession of more countries. The review would also align the structure of the Convention to that of the pre-existing International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for seafarers (STCW).
Council Decision (EU) 2015/799 of 18 May 2015 authorising Member States to become party, in the interest of the European Union, to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel, of the International Maritime Organisation (OJ L 127, 22.5.2015, pp. 20-21)
last update 07.01.2016