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Maritime Safety: Europe demands safer seas
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When the Prestige foundered off the coast of Galicia in December 2002, there was mounting ager. What was Europe going, people wondered? Where were the measures promised when the Erika sank? This report illustrates the regulatory measures taken at European level to avoid such catastrophes, and the delay of Member States to implement them.
Since 1990, ten or so major accidents mainly involving tankers have struck the European
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Union shores, often with dramatic results for the coastal environment and economy.
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There is all the more cause for concern because 90% of the petroleum traded with the European
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Union is transported by sea. Does that mean nothing works for the transport of black gold?
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It may come as a surprise to you, but maritime oil transfers are probably one of the safest
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means in this sector. It is no less so that the general public does not have this perception
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simply because accidents, when they occur, have particularly spectacular consequences
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and are perceived extremely negatively by an exasperated public opinion, which we understand.
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What is important for a freighter today is not the quality of a ship, it is the price
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of daily returns. So if you offer him a boat for $2,000 a day or a boat for $4,000, it
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is easy to understand that the freighter will choose a ship for $2,000. Ships today sail
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with a daily cost of $2,500, whereas the cost of a daily ship is $3,000. So, inevitably,
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it is impossible for these people to keep their ships in good condition.
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We see that oil products that have a high value, such as gas and kerosene, are generally
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transported by quality ships. And I have very few accidents that concern them, whereas
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ships that transport heavy fuel, which are among oil products, those that have the lowest
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unit value, will be affected by less efficient units.
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It's hardly an exaggeration to say that heavy fuel oil goes hand in hand with old tankers.
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Old tankers with damage, and you can imagine the rest. The root of the problem? Unscrupulous
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flags and operators, which give a bad name to the whole sector. With its thousands of
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kilometres of coastline and the world's busiest sea routes, the European Union is
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particularly vulnerable. It has therefore decided to adopt its own legislation on maritime
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safety, to force and improve compliance with international maritime organisation rules
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on its territory.
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The difference between international rules and community rules is that on the international
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level there is no control, no sanctions and no tribunal. For example, the rules of the
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OMI can be perfect, but there is no auditing capacity to go and check if the countries
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respect the rules. This is the reason why the European Union, to protect its coasts,
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has decided to take back its international norms in the community legislation and to
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control its respect. And when the states do not respect, for example, the norms in terms
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of safety controls in the ports, well, they are sent to the court of justice, which will
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not fail to condemn them, and if they do not respect, they will be subject to restraints.
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The ship control regulation is one such example in community law. Theoretically, the IMO obliges
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all countries to perform checks on the state of vessels registered under their flag. Many,
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however, apply the rule too leniently. Europe has therefore introduced an additional level
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of control. The countries of the European Union are now required to inspect at least
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25% of the vessels putting in at their ports. Any ship found to be in serious violation
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is immobilized until it is brought into compliance. Statistically, 10% of the vessels controlled
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fall into this category. Cooperation by the member states is the only way to rid community
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waters of unfit vessels. In parallel, the European Union has introduced a community
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approval for the classification societies that issue seaworthiness certificates for
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vessels. Unless they have such approval, classification societies will no longer be able to work on
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behalf of European states.
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So we said to the member states, either it is you who are going to do the checks on the structure
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of the vessels, you ensure that on the technical level they have been well built, that they are
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well maintained, or if you continue to delegate it to classification societies, they must be
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better controlled. And to better control their work, the Commission proposed to the Council
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of Ministers in Parliament, which finally accepted it, that when these societies do
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not do their work well, because we will have seen for example that a vessel that they
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controlled did not resist a storm, well the Commission will be able to withdraw the accreditation
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of the classification society. And we know very well that in the past there were classification
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societies that made extremely miniscule checks, if I may say so.
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Outside of the classification societies that take their responsibilities seriously, how
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many others certify floating wrecks, even if this is never actually spelled out?
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There are certain flags which, at least my society, say no thanks to. There are certain
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flags we do not want to work for.
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That's not all. Immediately after the Erika disaster, the European Union decided to clamp
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down again, adapting two more packages of measures.
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The use of double hull vessels is at present recognised as an effective preventive measure
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to keep an accident from turning into a catastrophe.
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A very tight timeframe was initially proposed by the European Commission for the phasing
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out of single hull vessels, but the Council of Ministers did not unanimously support it.
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The prestige was 26 years old. Under this proposal, it would have had to been withdrawn
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from activity in September 2002, well before its sinking.
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In three months, a complete package of measures was released.
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Everyone said that this was what had to be done for a long time.
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The states finally accepted it, but at the last moment they said,
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Mr. Le Bourreau, five more minutes.
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And simply, the prestige affair shows that these deadlines were far too long.
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So now we understand.
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So rather than making directives that require transpositions by the national parliaments
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for 18 months, two years, for new measures, for example the prohibition of heavy fuel
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transport by single-hull oil vessels, a measure that we have just proposed,
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at the request of the European Council, we have chosen the path of a regulation
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that, as soon as it is adopted, will be mandatory in all its elements,
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in the entire European Union, without the need to take measures of application at the national level.
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By February 2004, the Member States must have transposed into their national laws
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all the ERICA measures adopted by the European Union.
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In Nice in December 2000, the heads of state nonetheless agreed to step up the process.
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How many did? Virtually none.
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To date, the establishment of the European Maritime Safety Agency
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is the only measure actually brought forward.
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Its role will be to provide the Commission and Member States
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technical support in maritime safety matters.
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Let me give two examples.
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The Prestige accident, the tanker went down,
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and everybody says there should be a policy of ports of refuge.
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You cannot just by law say there have to be these places of refuge.
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Member States experts need to sit together and work together to develop this concept.
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Another example, following the ERICA already,
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it was concluded that we need a European system around the entire European coast
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to monitor all the ships with dangerous goods moving around our coast.
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To build such a European-wide traffic monitoring system,
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you need a body for technical cooperation,
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and it is these kind of things that EMSA is going to do primarily.
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EMSA also plans to give the Agency vessels to combat oil slicks,
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and the idea of creating a European coast guard is being explored.
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But two sensitive issues remain,
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compensation for victims and penal sanctions for polluters.
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At this moment, we are taking new measures.
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New measures, following the Prestige accident,
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will, on the one hand, increase the financial responsibility,
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the compensation fund up to 1 billion euros,
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and, secondly, the proposal to impose a penal responsibility
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for cases of serious negligence in the entire transport chain.
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With the implementation of these different packages of measures,
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Europe will at last be better prepared
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to strengthen maritime safety to maximum levels along its coasts.
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- Niveles educativos:
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- Nivel Intermedio
- Autor/es:
- The European Union
- Subido por:
- EducaMadrid
- Licencia:
- Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
- Visualizaciones:
- 1156
- Fecha:
- 2 de julio de 2007 - 15:33
- Visibilidad:
- Público
- Enlace Relacionado:
- European Commission
- Duración:
- 11′ 12″
- Relación de aspecto:
- 4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
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