The European Commission is threatening to retract recognition of Filipino sailors’ certificates due to repeated complaints about the qualifications of the Filipino sailors and their education. This has prompted personal involvement in the case from the Filipino president. The Danish Shipowners’ Association, which employs thousands of sailors and officers from the Philippines, is pleased that the president has taken this step, .

“We have maybe 3000 employees from the Philippines within the Danish merchant navy so naturally, we are delighted if the country has decided to handle the problems, seeing as we have so many Filipino employees. I think the European Commission has using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Certainly, there are some circumstances that should be looked into, but we have a lot of qualified Filipino sailors. Consequently, we have been in disagreement with the actions of the European Commission in this case, but the important thing to us is that a solution is found,” says vice president of The Danish Shipowners’ Association, Jan Fritz Hansen.