Article 3

This Directive shall apply to all boatmasters of inland-waterway vessels: self-propelled barges, tugs, pusher craft, barges, pushed convoys or side-by-side formations, intended for the transport of goods or passengers, except for:

• boatmasters of vessels intended for goods transport which are under 20 metres in length,

• boatmasters of vessels intended for passenger transport, which carry no more than 12 people in addition to the crew.

A Member State may, after consulting the Commission, exempt from the application of this Directive boatmasters operating exclusively on national waterways not linked to the navigable network of another Member State and issue them with national boatmasters' certificates, the conditions for obtaining which may differ from those defined in this Directive. The validity of those national certificates shall in that case be limited to those waterways.