9/26 – Safe manning
Sea-going vessels flying the German Flag may be fully manned with non-EU seafarers - including masters and ship officers.
Until now, only EU citizens were eligible to serve as masters on German-flagged merchant ships. For larger ships, an EU ship officer was also required.
While this principle remains in place, an amendment to the Safe Manning Ordinance gives shipping companies additional options:
Option 1:
The master or ship officer from a third country holds a certificate of competency from an EU member state:
In this case, a German endorsement and completion of a course on German maritime law are sufficient
Option 2:
The master or ship officer from a third country holds a certificate of competency from a non-EU country:
In this case, the shipping company must also apply for an Exceptional Permission from the Ship Safety Office of the BG Verkehr. To do so, an email to service@deutsche-flagge.de and fulfillment of three requirements are sufficient:
- No EU master or EU ship officer is available on the labour market.
- The shipowner certifies that it is currently unable to promote any ship officer to the position of master.
- The shipowner establishes two training spots for each master or ship officer from third countries the employ under this regulation. For shipping companies with vessels exclusively under 500 GT, one training spot is sufficient. These may include:
- Ship's mechanic apprentices
- Officer assistants (NOA, TOA, ETOA)
- Junior officers who graduated from a maritime trainnig facility no more than 5 years ago
The Exceptional Permission is specific to the shipping company. It is initially valid for 6 months. Once the training spots have been established, it will be extended for an additional 54 months.
By offering the option of flexibly employing qualified professionals from third countries, the Federal Ministry of Transport is responding to the growing shortage of EU masters and ship officers in the maritime labour market. Making ship safe manning more flexible has a dual benefit: it makes the German flag more competitive and provides incentives for more maritime training.
More information: https://www.deutsche-flagge.de/en/crew-social-security/ships-manning/nationalities
