COMMISSION DECISION (EU) 2024/415

of 1 February 2024

on access of the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine to the European Crew Database

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Directive (EU) 2017/2397 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on the recognition of professional qualifications in inland navigation and repealing Council Directives 91/672/EEC and 96/50/EC (1), and in particular Article 25(4) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Article 25(2) of Directive (EU) 2017/2397 stipulates that Member States are to reliably record without delay certificates of qualification, service record books and logbooks in the Commission’s databases.

(2) The Commission established the European Crew Database (‘ECDB’) for certificates of qualifications as well as service record books and the European Hull Database (‘EHDB’) for logbooks to this end and laid down conditions for the use of those databases in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/473 (2).

(3) With Commission Decision (EU) 2023/1555 (3), Switzerland was granted access to the ECDB and the EHDB in accordance with Article 25(4) of Directive 2017/2397, as Swiss personnel also navigate on Union inland waterways while adhering to requirements identical to those of Directive (EU) 2017/2397.

(4) The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine (‘CCNR’) has requested access to the ECDB by letter of 13 June 2022. It is an international organisation in the domain of inland navigation based on the Revised Convention for Navigation on the Rhine of 17 October 1868. Its members are Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It requests a read-only access in accordance with Annex I, No. 2.2 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/473 for international organisations, as clarified in its request by letter of 17 October 2022.

(5) The CCNR cooperates with the Union based on an Administrative Agreement of 2003 and a further Administrative Arrangement of 2013. On that basis, the CCNR provides technical assistance to the Union in conducting market observations which includes analyses of the inland waterway labour market. The CCNR also operates as the secretariat of the “Comité Européen pour l’Élaboration de Standards dans le Domaine de Navigation Intérieure” (‘CESNI’) which sets standards for inland navigation. In that role, the CCNR assists CESNI with factual knowledge, statistics, and support in terms of content. Therefore, granting access of the CCNR to the ECDB would serve statistical purposes as well as facilitating the evaluation of Directive (EU) 2017/2397 as set out in Article 25(2) of that Directive.

(6) To perform the tasks of serving statistical purposes and the evaluation of Directive (EU) 2017/2397, the CCNR does not need access to personal data, but only aggregate statistical data. The ECDB provides for a mode of access that only allows to see aggregate statistical data, which should be used for the CCNR. In its letter of 17 October 2022, the CCNR further ensured that it has no corresponding database to which it could grant access as required by Article 25(4) of Directive (EU) 2017/2397.

(7) The Commission, after assessing the request of the CCNR, considers that it is appropriate to grant access to the ECDB to the CCNR,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

Access to aggregate statistical data in the European Crew Database shall be provided to the Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine. The access shall not include access to personal data.

Article 2

This Decision shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the

Official Journal of the European Union

Done at Brussels, 1 February 2024.

For the Commission

The President

Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1)

OJ L 345, 27.12.2017, p. 53

, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2017/2397/oj.

(2) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/473 of 20 January 2020 supplementing Directive (EU) 2017/2397 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the standards for databases for the Union certificates of qualification, service record books and logbooks (

OJ L 100, 1.4.2020, p. 1

, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2020/473/oj).

(3) Commission Decision (EU) 2023/1555 of 25 July 2023 on providing access to the European Crew Database and to the European Hull Database to the authorities of Switzerland (

OJ L 188, 27.7.2023, 55

, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2023/1555/oj).

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2024/415/oj

ISSN 1977-0677 (electronic edition)