Although Gesine Meissner (ALDE, Germany) considers that there is “a lot of good things” in the European Commission proposal on port reception facilities for delivering waste from ships (see EUROPE 11940), she suggests several amendments in her draft report, particularly as a means of making international rules stricter when disposing waste at sea.
The MEP is effectively calling for the recitals of principle in the future revised directive to demand that the EU “work at International Maritime Organisation (IMO) level on discharge bans for wastewater from open loop scrubbers and certain cargo residues” in order to ensure that these rules are more stringent. She would also like ship repair waste to be included in the definition of “waste from ships”.
This is one of the main points that the rapporteur put forward during a debate on her draft text in Parliament's transport committee on Tuesday 10 July. Ms Meissner acknowledged that the dossier had obtained a certain convergence in the analyses from the rapporteur for the opinion from the Parliament environment committee, Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Netherlands). This dossier is not expected to be overly sensitive.
Among her other recommendations, Ms Meissner would like to encourage the collection of maritime waste through mechanisms for financing this kind of action developed by the member states. She is also in favour of possibly reducing the fees that cover the cost of using port facilities for treating waste when ships are used in the short sea shipping trade.
It should be recalled that the European Union Transport Ministers adopted their general approach during the Council of the EU meeting on 7 June last (see EUROPE 12036).
The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) greeted the draft report presented by Ms Meissner favourably. It is, however, opposed to the fees system proposed and considers that it does not sufficiently reflect the “polluter pays” principle. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)