A consortium of fisheries organisations, together with MEP Millán Mon has co-hosted a successful reception at the European Parliament to present the results of the EU SAFEFISHING project, designed to promote best safety practices and reduce the accident rate in the fishing sector.
Safety at sea and training have always been a top priority for both Europêche and partner organisations. Building on almost three years of close collaboration and co-operation, the six organisations have pooled their expertise to pioneer a new approach towards harmonised preventive measures in the fishing sector. In order to better acquaint fishermen with the hazards involved in fishing operations, the consortium has produced an audiovisual training tool on occupational risk prevention. The implementation of these measures is expected to help minimise risks and guaranteeing better safety and health conditions on board.
‘Sustainable fisheries require good working conditions, high levels of safety, environmental protection and operational efficiency. Safety at sea is therefore paramount and everyone’s responsibility,’ said Millán Mon.
‘As legislators, we should spare no effort to prevent any accident from happening and ensure that our fishers operate under the best possible safety and working conditions. For this reason, I am honoured to host the presentation of this project which focuses on the protection and safety of the fishermen.’
Cor Blonk, Chairman of the EU Social Dialogue Committee for Sea Fisheries, congratulated the partners of this project for their contribution to prevent labour risks in fishing. He also appreciated the efforts made by the European Parliament to place safety at sea at the core of the future Common Fisheries Policy.
‘The safety of human life must be at the forefront of EU legislation to ensure its protection as part of sustainable fishing,’ he said. ‘For this purpose, EU policies must be aligned with international standards on training and certification. It would be a huge step forward transposing STCW-F into European legislation. This Convention would bridge the legal gaps at EU level on harmonised vocational training, recognition of certificates, free movement of workers and marine pollution.’
‘SAFEFISHING offers an added value to the EU fishing sector by providing a model for best practices in the field of training and risk prevention which may be used by any country in Europe. For us, these measures are fundamental to ensure that our crews return safe and sound to their families after fishing,’ commented Javier Touza, President of the Ship-owners Cooperative of Vigo (ARVI) and leading partner, outlining the overall objectives and results of the project.
The project consortium is made of six partners from five European countries with experience both in vocational training in this sector and in prevention of occupational hazards in trawl fishing; ARVI (Shipowners Cooperative of Vigo, Spain), SGS TECNOS (World’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification multinational company), MARE (Fisheries Cooperative, Italy), IMP (Maritime institute for prevention, France), RTEU (Faculty of Fisheries, Turkey) and EUROPECHE (European Fisheries Association, Europe).
SAFEFISHING has developed, as a final product, a European standardised training programme for the control of occupational risks in the trawling sector in both digital and audiovisual format, available as a DVD and also on the safefishing.eu website. This DVD aims at improving and harmonising the prevention of trawling occupational risks in Europe.
SAFEFISHING is a project funded by the Strategic Partnerships Action in the field of vocational training of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme, in particular KA2; Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices.
