Green light for a bill that makes a series of simplifications introduced during the pandemic permanent, such as the recruitment of maritime workers
After approval in the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies has also given the green light to the “Simplifications” bill, which introduces important new features for the simplification and de-bureaucratization of maritime transport, measures long advocated by the sector, through the associations Confitarma and Assarmatori, in a «dialogue with the Institutions to protect and implement the international competitiveness of a sector that is fundamental for a country like Italy», reads a note from Assarmatori.
In particular, the simplifications introduced during the pandemic emergency regarding the annotations of embarkation and disembarkation and the forms of the employment contract for maritime workers are made structural, then extended year by year, with the use of digital forms and the possibility of stipulation in places other than that of the shipowner. Furthermore, the reorganization and simplification of the discipline of the health service on board merchant ships is envisaged, with particular reference to the relevant healthcare professional figures, also in consideration of the time elapsed since the issuance of the Royal Decree of September 29, 1895, no. 636, containing “Approval of the Maritime Health Regulations”.
«These are zero-cost measures for the State’s coffers – comments the president of Assarmatori, Stefano Messina – which are however very important for shipping companies and for maritime work. As is known, the Italian flag has been in crisis for several years and not in favor of flags of convenience from some tax haven, but to the advantage of community registers that offer a lean and completely digitized bureaucratic apparatus. This approval is a significant step forward for our country in this sense. We are fully satisfied with the outcome of this process, which we have followed closely since the beginning – concludes Messina – but the work of de-bureaucratizing the administrative apparatus that regulates maritime transport in Italy must proceed without delay: the approval of the Simplifications Bill must be the kick-off of a path that brings Italian shipping back to competing globally and certainly not the final whistle of the match».
«Long-awaited measures for our seafarers and for the competitiveness of the national fleet, both for the streamlining of recruitment procedures and for the hoped-for start of the revision of the discipline of health services on board ships», says the president of the Fondo Nazionale Marittimi, Angelo D’Amato. «As the Fondo Nazionale Marittimi – he continues – we have worked alongside the shipowners’ Associations to promote proposals and amendments, especially thanks to the constant sensitivity of Hon. Maria Grazia Frijia but also of many other majority and opposition parliamentarians as well as the will of the administration to finally begin to accompany this process of modernization of the Italian flag».
«The activation of the National Digital Registry of Seafarers is also taking shape», confirms the procurator of the Fund, Alessandro Ferrari, «which also includes the digitization of the seafarers’ Navigation Booklet: a long-awaited step forward, fundamental in the path of technological innovation of the maritime world.»
We initiated a dialogue with the Directorate General of the MIT led by Patrizia Scarchilli in April, building a project together with Assarmatori and Confitarma, presented to the MIT in the month of July.
Last Wednesday, during the Interministerial Committee for the Digital Transition chaired by the Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Senator Alessio Butti, the Undersecretary of State Tullio Ferrante highlighted how the AnGeMar single platform, interoperable and accessible via digital identity, will allow for the simplified management of data relating to professional qualifications, boardings, certifications, and careers of maritime personnel and the dematerialization of the navigation record book, also in a digital IT-Wallet version, reducing paper obligations and guaranteeing the immediate availability of professional information, in line with the PNRR objectives.
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