The growth of boats abandoning the Italian flag and acquiring a foreign one (+256% in three years) is a consequence of the problems that we also try to highlight in this article: high boat running costs, excessive equipment, high bureaucracy, controls at sea, etc. It is difficult to curb the (legitimate) phenomenon without solving the problems. It is not, however, all that glitters is gold, despite the hugely expanding trend.
Boats with foreign flags
Despite the success of foreign flags, it is necessary to warn those seeking easy landings. Individual nations (and the European Union) are well aware of the “foreign flag” trend and are gradually tightening the mesh. Belgium, one of the latest countries (after France) to experience an abnormal boom in foreign shipowners’ entries in its maritime registries, “forced” recently to change the rules by requiring residency of the boat owner. Now the latest desire registry is the Polish one (partly the Slovenian one), with easy, quick and online registrations skyrocketed in a few years from 2,000 to 77,000, which, however, also seem to have attracted unscrupulous people. So much so that crimes (especially drug transport) committed with Belgian-flagged boats have greatly increased ending up alarming international organizations (such as Unodc) who have turned a beacon on boats sailing in the Atlantic under this flag. Also for this reason, Poland has recently been placed on the gray list in the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris Mou), and Greek authorities also appear to have intensified controls on Polish-flagged boats. Signals. A further deterrent from reflagging could also come with the “Enhancement of the sea resource” bill approved on November 25 by the Council of Ministers: for residents in Italy with foreign-flagged boats (and sailing in Italian waters) there is a requirement to apply for a safety certificate if the vessel does not have such a certificate.
The council
Carefully weigh the pros and cons of changing flags and, above all, keep abreast of regulatory developments in the industry, both in our country and the country of boat registration.
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