Brexit Update (2)

 

In the absence of an agreement with the EU, Brexit will have an immediate impact on UK seafarers and on shipping services from the UK to ports within the EU.

  1. UK seafarers. The STCW requires crew members to have a Certificate of Competence which must be renewed every five years. The UK allows crew members who have trained outside the UK to work on a UK vessel if they have a certificate of equivalent competency issued by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Under EU law there are two procedures for recognising seafarers’ qualifications. Under EC Directive 2005/45/EC there is mutual recognition by EU Member States of certificates issued to seafarers by other Member States which must be accompanied by an endorsement by the recognising State. Certificates from non-EU countries may be endorsed under EC Directive 2008/106/EC. After exit day existing UK endorsed certificates would enable UK seafarers to work on vessels flagged with EU Member States but on expiry renewal would be under the procedure set up under Directive 2008/106. EU Member States would be required to write to the Commission if they wish to continue accepting new UK certificates of competence.
  2. Shipping services.  Article 6 of EC Regulation 725/2004 requires shipping companies (including ferries carrying passengers and lorries) prior to entering an EU port to submit security information, such as: particulars of the ship; last 10 port facilities of call; crew and passenger list. Article 7 allows a Member State to exempt companies which operate scheduled services between ports in their territory and that of another Member State. After ‘Exit Day’ no exemptions will be available for vessels operating scheduled services from the UK.

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Professor Simon Baughen

Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.

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