Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-06-Speech-3-077"
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"en.20000906.4.3-077"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am very happy to be here today to participate in the debate on the approval of the directive on port reception facilities for ship-generated waste and cargo residues.
Like previous speakers, I would firstly like to congratulate the rapporteur, Mr Bouwman, on the excellent work he has done. During this time he has combined steadfastness with flexibility and intelligence to achieve a result which is acceptable to all the institutions and which will serve to make our seas cleaner.
I must tell you, for example, that this summer, one of the items in the news in the country I know best, Spain, involved the southern coastlines being affected by the pollution resulting from oil tankers cleaning our their holds in international waters. This is one of the 100 000 cases which occur throughout the year on Europe’s coastlines. What we have to do is find out how we can, if not end, then at least limit as far as possible, given the capacity we have, these harmful effects on our seas. In order to end it, we would have to reconsider Maritime Law which, to a large extent, originates from the maritime situation of the 17th and 18th Centuries, which bore no relation to the current situation.
I believe we have made a great deal of progress which will noticeably improve the marine environment in the face of the deliberate contamination by certain ships – because not all of them do this sort of thing – of our coastlines.
The current version of this directive has the support of everybody. It has the support of the shipowners because it provides them with waste facilities, which already exist in some European ports but unfortunately not in all of them, particularly not in the smaller ports, where the Member States will have to make significant investments. This version of the directive has the support of the ports, because it means that their investments in this type of facility will not put them at a competitive disadvantage, which has unfortunately been the case at times, since some ports have made considerable efforts and others have not. It has the support of those sectors which are most sensitive to the problem of residues and the fight for sustainable development. I believe that the whole of this House and also the representatives of the Council and the Commission are included in this group, not only the ecologists, but all those who are concerned about this type of problem.
We believe that issues such as the planning of residue management, the ships’ delivery obligations, prior notification, the controls – 25% of the controls –, fees which incentivise the use of port facilities for cleaning the holds of ships, will necessarily contribute to a reduction in marine pollution. This directive, of course, enjoys the support of the three institutions, the Commission, the Council and Parliament, because we know that it will mean something positive for our citizens.
It would have been very sad if we had been unable to reach this agreement, which was so longed-for by everyone. I would like to thank the Council for its flexibility and its constructive will, and Parliament also, especially the rapporteur, for the work carried out over this period and during the conciliation procedure. The Commission has obtained some commitments which have helped this agreement. These commitments enable us to specify that “significant” means that at least 30% of the costs of the cleaning of holds in ports must be covered in a general sense, whether or not these port facilities are used. If over the next three years we see that the Member States’ actions are not sufficient and the desired results are not obtained, the Commission reserves the right to present a new directive clearly establishing a minimum percentage which must be covered by the general fees or by an obligatory cleaning fee in the various European ports. It is also the Commission’s responsibility to verify that that control of 25%, another key element of this directive, is carried out by the Member States.
I would like once again to thank Parliament for standing firm on the need for a strengthened mechanism for reviewing the fees system, which will undoubtedly allow us to move forward and make a detailed study of the current system which we have implemented and the consequences for the environment.
Mr President, it has already been said in the debates that we have suffered from the impact of the
tragedy, but the cleaning out of holds is equivalent to more than one
each year on Europe’s coastlines. We are, therefore, taking a great step forward today. This does not mean that we are not going to move forward on issues relating to oil tankers and safety in the transport of polluting materials, such as oil and its derivatives, issues which we hope will not only make progress in this House and the Council, but which will also be supplemented by means of additional initiatives which, as the Commission has stated, will be presented shortly."@en1
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