"Visas for non-EU seafarers embarking in Italy near approval"

An amendment to the Ukraine decree, the result of the coordinated work of Undersecretary Ivan Scalfarotto (Interior Affairs) with his counterpart Benedetto Della Vedova (Foreign Affairs), the chair of the Chamber of Deputies' Transport Committee, Raffaella Paita, and submitted by Senator Mauro Maria Marino, aims to resolve the issue of visa requirements for foreign seafarers joining ships docked in Italy.

Confindustria Nautica announced the announcement, recalling that the bureaucratic difficulties that arose in the last six months had in fact pushed part of the international fleet to abandon both ports and shipyards in Italy in favor of other European competitors, as denounced by Confindustria Nautica together with Confitarma, Assarmatori, Federagenti and the Ligurian association Genova for Yachting, coordinated in a discussion with the institutions.

"Now that the amendment has received a favorable opinion from the Senate Finance and Industry Committees, we expect swift final approval in the interests of the maritime and coastal economies. I am very pleased with how the institutions have worked together to provide us with a timely response," said Saverio Cecchi, President of Confindustria Nautica.

The question, first raised by Alberto Amico of the Amico & Co shipyard during a conference held two months ago in Genoa, arose from the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of February 5, 2020, regarding the stamping of the exit travel documents of seafarers aboard vessels docked in EU waters, and denied boarding visas for vessels that had been in port for a long time and whose departure date was unknown. However, the principle had also been extended to vessels in temporary transit or for repairs and was currently applied in a patchy manner, resulting in unequal treatment even in competition between neighboring countries.

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