EU wants tougher maritime laws

By Emily Smith

Date: 17/11/05

The EU should toughen up ship safety rules to avoid environmentally disastrous oil spills, according to proposals to be presented by the European Commission next Wednesday (23 November).

This will be the third set of updated EU maritime safety rules adopted since French oil tanker Erika sank off the coast of Brittany in 1999, causing widespread pollution and loss of wildlife.

The 'Erika III' package will be adopted by the Commission almost exactly three years after a second devastating oil spill, when Greek-owned tanker Prestige went down near the Spanish coast on 20 November 2002.

Erika III is expected to go further than the previous two packages, with improved measures for investigating shipping accidents and tougher rules for state control of ports. It will also push EU countries to enforce entry bans on ships not up to European standards.

The Commission will be hoping member states show stronger support for the latest legislation than for the previous two packages. Eight of the 15 old member states were taken to court late last year for failing to implement Erika II before a February 2004 deadline.

Ricardo Aguilar of environmentalist group Europa Oceana said implementation was "the weak point" in EU maritime safety legislation. "We are very happy with the improvements proposed in this area, but many countries are not following through," he said.

Aguilar believes that the time has come for Europe to push for international co-ordination in the field of safe shipping, using the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) as a springboard. In recent years, he said, the EU had done a lot to improve legislation on safety and pollution, but "the problem is though we now have strong rules in the EU and the US, we would still like to see the same in, for example, Asia".

Article anticipates the adoption by the European Commission of the so called 'Erika III' package, a legislative package aims at improving EU maritime safety rules, to be presented on 23 November 2005.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG Energy and Transport: Maritime safety http://ec.europa.eu/comm/transport/maritime/safety/index_en.htm

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