Press Release: Seafarers’ certificates: the Commission will send letters of formal notice to 10 Member States which have failed to transpose the rules on mobility and crew skills into their national law.

The European Commission has decided today to send a letter of formal notice to 10 Member States for failing to notify the Commission of the measures they have taken to transpose into their national law the directive on the recognition of seafarers' certificates[1]. The Member States concerned are: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. In acknowledgement of the growing hardship affecting seafarers in many Member States since the 1980s, this directive for the first time introduces the automatic recognition of national certificates. It thereby aims to facilitate the mobility of Community seafarers between Member States.