Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-13-Speech-2-181"
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"en.20030513.10.2-181"2
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".
As the honourable Members – and Mrs Gutiérrez-Cortines – know, on 13 December the Commission adopted a Communication on increasing maritime safety, following the Prestige accident, a text which reminds the Member States of the need to apply in advance and to speed up the application of the Erika I and Erika II legislative packages, as well as proposing new measures.
These new measures were given impetus at the last Council of Ministers in March, because, without waiting any longer, the Commission has applied certain provisions proposed in its Communication. All the measures necessary for the establishment of the European Maritime Safety Agency have therefore been adopted: on 29 January its Executive Director was appointed and its activities are already beginning in Brussels, with a provisional headquarters while its final headquarters is decided upon.
The Commission has also begun to establish a Community system for the monitoring of ship traffic, the SafeSeaNet, and has also asked the Member States to define in advance national plans for receiving ships in difficulties in ports or areas of refuge before this summer.
Two coordination meetings have already been organised in this regard and I would like to point out that the Commission has also, apart from addressing all the neighbouring countries of the Mediterranean Rim, but also Russia and Norway, held talks (it has not only addressed all these countries in writing) to stress the importance for maritime safety of the control of oil tankers by port authorities, but that, also, specifically with Russia, Norway, Algeria and Morocco, we have dealt with these issues in the bilateral meetings with the relevant ministers and, in the specific case of Russia and Norway, we are looking at the possibility of establishing a control system for maritime traffic in the Baltic and the North Sea, which allows us to increase safety and prevent any kind of problem.
I must add that, on 20 December, the College of Commissioners adopted a Regulation prohibiting the transport of heavy fuel by single-hull oil tankers, to or from European Union ports, and according to which, the replacement of single hull ships with double hull ships is speeded up, a proposal which furthermore has been agreed in the Council and examined at first reading by the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism and which therefore should enter into force next June, if the agreements within the Council are maintained.
I would finally like to point out that, on 5 March, the Commission delivered to the European Parliament and the Council a proposal for a directive on pollution from ships and the introduction of penalties, including of a criminal nature, for pollution crimes. This proposal relates to illegal, accidental or voluntary dumping – because there is also wilful dumping: the cleaning of hulls and of bilge, which the honourable Member refers to, establishing responsibilities throughout the chain from shipowners, charterers, classification societies, etc which will allow us to resolve the gaps in Community law on deliberate or accidental pollution by ships and which will oblige the Member States to adopt the corresponding legislation.
Finally, the FIFG Fund, which we have seen in the case of the
but also in the case of the
which is patently insufficient with its current sum, must be increased to a maximum ceiling of responsibility of a thousand million euros, in accordance with the Commission’s proposals, and in accordance with an agreement in the Council of Ministers, which has agreed that, if this fund is not increased within the framework of the International Maritime Organisation, at least in the European region, a Decision will be adopted at European Union level to establish a supplementary fund which allows these levels of compensation to be achieved. On the 16th of this month there will be a diplomatic conference, within the International Maritime Organisation, and I hope that this proposal of ours will be accepted, that is, simply that the European Union should receive equivalent protection to a country such as the United States for example."@en1
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