Commission wants end to hazardous scrapping of ships in poor countries

EU governments must find a way of ending the dangerous breaking up of old ships in poor countries, according to a green paper to be presented by the European Commission next month.

Up to 600 ships have to be scrapped every year, with about a third of these owned by companies based in the EU. Most of these are taken apart on the Indian sub-continent, where scrap steel and second-hand shipping equipment can fetch high prices.

But lower safety standards outside the EU mean materials including asbestos, PVC and oil sludge are often dumped. Workers are also often made to work in dangerous conditions.

Governments will be asked to think of ways to tackle the problem in a green paper on ‘better ship dismantling’ to be published on 13 March. A draft of the paper asks EU governments to consider ten questions on ship scrapping, including the type of action that should be taken at EU level.

The paper calls the dismantling of ships "part of the underbelly of globalisation".

"At present it is sustainable from a narrow economic point of view, but the costs for human health and the environment are high," it says.

About 40 people are thought to be killed every year during ship scrapping operations in Bangladesh alone. Over the next ten years, about 5.5 million tonnes of environmentally dangerous materials are expected to end up in scrapyards.

Existing EU and international laws have failed to discourage ship scrapping outside the EU. Stavros Dimas last year announced that tackling the problem would be a priority for his five-year term as European environment commissioner. Member states in November supported his decision, saying they would welcome an EU strategy on ship dismantling.

More than 100 warships and government vessels are to be dismantled before 2018, most of them French and British. A ban on single hull oil tankers will also come into force in 2010, putting potentially 800 ships in line for scrap.

France last year focused EU attention on the scrapping problem when the government ordered aircraft carrier Clemenceau back to French waters, after an attempt to send the decommissioned ship - insulated with asbestos - to India for dismantling was ruled illegal by a French court.

A French government official said it would be important to make sure any eventual EU rules were in line with a strategy being developed by the International Maritime Organisation.

The green paper points out that "gaps in the forthcoming international regime and the possible delay until it becomes effective" are likely to make EU action necessary, perhaps in the form of several regional initiatives.

EU-wide legislation is also possible, but the draft warns that this could encourage ships currently registered in Europe to "re-flag" themselves as belonging to a non-EU country.

Belgian Liberal MEP Dirk Sterckx warned there would be no simple solutions to the ship scrapping problem.

"If we say we are going to scrap more of the ships in our own yards it is certain we will take away the livelihood of a large number of people," he said. "Thousands of people outside the EU are absolutely dependent on ship scrapping."

While acknowledging that "some of the things that happen in non-EU shipping yards are absolutely unacceptable", he added: "We have to work out a solution with developing countries."

Countries such as India do have environmental and safety rules for dismantling ships, Sterckx said, and Europe should focus on helping them to enforce their own laws.

He warned against basing ship scrapping decisions on purely environmental criteria, saying that jobs and livelihoods in poor countries also had to be kept in mind.

EU governments must find a way of ending the dangerous breaking up of old ships in poor countries, according to a green paper to be presented by the European Commission next month.

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