International Certificate of Competence (ICC)

The ICC (or to give it its full title International Certificate for Operators of Pleasure Craft) is a certificate which is intended to provide evidence of competence when requested by officials in foreign countries. It was historically known as the International Certificate of Competence.

It is issued under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Inland Transport Committee Working Party on Inland Water Transport Resolution No. 40. The Resolution details how and to whom the ICC may be issued, the syllabus requirements and the layout of the certificate. The Resolution also lists the countries which have notified the UNECE Secretariat that they have accepted the resolution.

The UK Government has accepted Resolution No. 40 and has authorised the RYA to issue a UK ICC on its behalf.

The origin and history of the ICC

The ICC was originally created to facilitate pleasure navigation along the length of the rivers Rhine and Danube.

The evidence of competence required, differed for each of the countries the rivers pass through, which caused difficulties. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Inland Transport Committee Working Party on Inland Water Transport sought to find a solution.

The rules surrounding the issue of the ICC were initially detailed in Resolutions 13 and 14, but it is Resolution No. 40, which was first adopted in October 1998, which now regulates the ICC.

Over time, the ICC has evolved into a document which enables boaters to evidence their competence when visiting both the inland waterways of Europe and European coastal waters.

When you visit another country, in most circumstances (in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) you are required to comply with the maritime legislation of the visited country (the Coastal State) in addition to that of your vessel’s country of registration (the Flag State).

The regulations for pleasure craft can vary considerably from one country to another and the regime for skipper training and licensing can be equally disparate; the ICC helps to overcome the difficulties these differences can cause.

An ICC issued by a contracting government to Resolution No. 40 indicates that the certificate holder has demonstrated the level of competence required by Resolution No. 40 for the certificate to be issued.

In other words it is an assurance from one government to another that the certificate holder is sufficiently competent to be operating a pleasure craft, despite not holding the visited country’s national certificate.

Formal acceptance of the ICC

The ICC should be automatically accepted in countries which have adopted Resolution No. 40. However, of the 56 UNECE countries able to accept the resolution, the UK is one of only a handful which have fully adopted Resolution No. 40.

Many of the eligible countries have not accepted Resolution No. 40, some still apply Resolution 14 which Resolution No. 40 was intended to replace and others only apply Resolution No. 40 in part or with caveats attached.

Wider (informal) acceptance

The ICC is however a far more useful document than the Resolution’s formal acceptance would suggest.

Although acceptance of the ICC by the visited country should be because the visited country itself has adopted Resolution No. 40, the ICC is sometimes recognised as an acceptable certificate in the visited country’s national legislation and is quite often accepted on a purely informal basis. Spain, Greece and Portugal, for example, have not adopted Resolution No. 40 but are still likely to ask visitors for an ICC.

The ICC may be acceptable for visiting foreign flagged vessels, foreign flagged vessels being kept in the Coastal State and/or vessels flagged in the Coastal State. It should never be assumed that the ICC will be accepted as an alternative to the national qualification of the vessel’s flag state. The onus is on ICC holders to determine its acceptability by foreign states, as the ICC was never intended to be an alternative to individual national qualification requirements.