Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-12-Speech-1-086"
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"en.20040112.7.1-086"2
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"Mr President, I want to make it clear that this should not be an inquiry into the
disaster off the Spanish/French coast: it concerns the safety of the entire European coastline. Very often rust-bucket, single-hull, decaying tankers carry enormous quantities of oil which are, in effect, environmental weapons of mass destruction.
I cannot imagine what would have happened if such a disaster had occurred off the coast of Ireland. I do not know how we would have coped. There are a great many measures in place, as has been said here today. One we should insist on is that only double-hull ships be allowed in and around European waters. We need political will – which does not exist and is unlikely to exist – within the European Union to avoid a repeat of the
disaster.
It is a well-known fact that all the maritime safety organisations are understaffed and underfunded. They will remain so, and, as a result, the safety of our seas will remain in danger.
Much of the pollution that occurs in Community waters, as has been said already, is either deliberate or avoidable. This type of action is nothing short of criminal and must therefore be dealt with by criminal sanctions. I am aware that criminal law is essentially a Member State competence and we must avoid taking a position that would seek to infringe Member States' rights in this area. Nonetheless, there is much to be recommended in the Commission's proposals and there is a clear way forward for harmonising criminal sanctions by means of a third-pillar instrument.
A second key element to ensuring a safer, cleaner maritime environment is the newly established European Maritime Safety Agency. This agency will have to play a major role in anti-pollution and ship security measures. The agency should be properly staffed and funded. It certainly is not at the moment.
Finally, I would like to draw colleagues' attention to the initiative of a number of Member States along the Atlantic north-west to establish particularly sensitive sea areas. I hope that this initiative, tabled by Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, the UK and Belgium within the UN's International Maritime Organisation, will have the full support of all current and future Member States. This will allow progress to be made on the matter in 2004.
However, it must be said that there is no doubt whatsoever that, without political will, nothing will change."@en1
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