Have no doubts about it. Safety is a big thing for the EU. The other day, the European Commission (EC) issued its 19th update of the list of airlines from some two dozen countries which are banned from flying to the EU for safety reasons. Included in the roster are Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air, and several other Filipino air carriers. Will the EC be more forgiving of the Philippines’ maritime education & training (MET) establishment?

We’ve said in a previous post that the whole issue before the EC as it considers a possible ban on Filipino seafarers boils down to marine safety. There’s absolutely no reason to believe that the EC will be any less strict in imposing safety standards in EU waters than in EU air space. Not with the 13th January Costa Concordia incident in Italy. Not with the 4th April grounding of the MV Carrier St John’s off north Wales. And certainly not with last year’s Rena incident in far-away New Zealand involving a Filipino master.

Lest some folks in Manila forget, the EC will be taking into account not only the general state of Philippine MET institutions but the ability of Philippine state agencies to verify compliance with the STCW standards. The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) inspectors who visited in Manila recently are a professional bunch. Whatever they report back to the EC will be fair and objective – no icing on the cake, just the cake. And that’s how it should be when it comes to safety. ~Barista Uno

NOTE: The updated EU list of banned air carriers can be downloaded from the EU website.