Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-01-17-Speech-4-171"
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"en.20020117.10.4-171"2
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".
The report acknowledges the dramatic fall in the number of seafarers in the ΕU and the shortage of properly trained men and officers. You only have to remember that the number of seafarers in the European Union has fallen from 320 000 in 1978 to 120 000 today to agree that the seafaring manpower of the Member States of the European Union has been totally decimated. The report ascribes this state of affairs to secondary causes and avoids tackling the root cause of the problem. The cause of this decimation is the European Union's very own maritime policy, which is predicated on the good old competitiveness of the shipping companies' fleets and benefits the shipping industry, with painful consequences for seafarers' families. For the sake of this competitiveness, the European Union's common maritime policy has recognised flags of convenience since as early as the mid 1980s, resulting in sweeping changes at the expense of seafarers and obscene profits for big business. The shipping industry uses current legislation and the EU's proposals to exploit seafaring labour from third countries and seafarers from within the European Union by paying lower wages and offering lower social benefits, thereby undermining the fundamental rights of workers (collective agreements, 7-hour day, contracts of employment, time off during the year etc.).
Falling standards in training and further training, which have wiped out the fund of know-how which used to exist, are the result of the EU's own policy, which has pushed for diplomas to be changed to certificates of ability to exercise the profession of seafarer and for professional diplomas to be abolished. The report makes no reference whatsoever to these serious problems; it merely regurgitates the usual wish-lists or, worse, proposes applying the good old sub-standard, fragmented training programmes, which are tailored to the needs of the shipping market, and networking educational institutions and companies.
Objectively-speaking, this sort of assessment and proposals such as these ally public concerns about the huge social problem of unemployment, accidents at sea (crimes at sea, to use the words of seafarers) and ecological disasters, while concealing the liability of shipowners and their political puppets.
In our opinion, if seafarers step up their fight at national and international level, if seafarers join forces with seafarers from third countries and overturn these policies under the banner of "an equal day's pay for an equal day's work", if seafarers are recruited subject to vested insurance rights, collective agreements and compulsory national insurance and if state education and training for seafarers is brought up to standard (for example by upgrading state-run naval schools), this will go a long way towards resolving the problems of the training and recruitment of seafarers. This sort of policy would guarantee that the needs of contemporary seafarers' families are met, as well as guaranteeing safety at sea and environmental protection.
It is for these reasons that the MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece intend to vote against the report."@en1
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