Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-13-Speech-2-183"
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"en.20030513.10.2-183"2
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".
I agree with the honourable Member that this is a process. When it comes to the cleaning out of bilge for example, we can demand that there should be no dumping at sea because we have approved – and this Parliament supported this proposal – a Directive which obliges all the Member States to establish, in all Union ports of a certain level, the installations necessary for cleaning hulls and bilge in port, so that it is not necessary to clean them at sea, which has been the normal practice a for all these years and which is the cause of more than 90% of oil pollution year after year. Hull pollution is not the result of great disasters such as the Erika, the Prestige, the Amoko Cádiz or the Mar Egeo. These have a terrible effect locally, as we have seen, but furthermore, every year tonnes and tonnes of oil are intentionally dumped at sea causing nine or ten times more pollution than these huge disasters.
With regard to Gibraltar, I would like to say to the honourable Member that in the Directive and Regulation adopted, in relation to the requirement on double-hull vessels, the transport of heavy oil, the modernisation of the fleet and other issues, it is stated very clearly: it is applicable in all ports, quays or anchorage areas in the European Union. Gibraltar is in the European Union and is therefore also affected, like any other place – such as Algeciras – to mention the opposite port.
Naturally, the Commissioner responsible for the Environment fully agrees with the measures we have proposed, although we are establishing a specific definition in relation to oil and pollution by hydrocarbons. A specific definition which relates to the fact that the FIFG Fund provides specific and differentiated cover and insurance for pollution by hydrocarbons – which other possible types of potential pollutants lack – and furthermore, in the field of criminal penalties, we also believe that pollution by hydrocarbons or by the cleaning out of bilge has a component which requires a specific type if penalty or which, at least, can require that other types of ecological crime are not treated as such a crime, with criminal penalties in some countries. But in this case, in which there are clearly the wilfulness and serious effects on nearby populations and the marine environment, it is clear that this criminal definition of this type of action, which are entirely unacceptable, is required."@en1
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