On Thursday 15 February, negotiators from the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the revision of the Directive on ship-source pollution (see EUROPE 13351/29).
“The seas and oceans are our common good. These new rules will set the EU to the forefront when it comes to clean shipping”, commented Paul Van Tigchelt, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and the North Sea, in a press release.
“We found a compromise that will ensure cleaner seas in Europe while at the same time providing a level playing field for a dynamic shipping industry”, he added.
The aim of this revision is to extend the scope of the directive to cover illegal discharges of harmful substances in packaged form, sewage, garbage and discharged waters and residues, and to establish a stronger legal framework for penalties and enforcement. MEPs succeeded in securing a requirement for the EU to review the rules five years after their transposition into national law, to assess whether marine plastic waste, lost containers and discharges of plastic pellets from ships should also be subject to sanctions.
The revised directive thus incorporates international standards into Community law, ensuring that those responsible for illegal discharges of polluting substances are subject to dissuasive, effective and proportionate penalties.
More surveillance
The revision establishes a strengthened legal framework for penalties and their effective enforcement, enabling national authorities to ensure dissuasive and consistent application of penalties for ship-source pollution incidents in all European seas. It introduces a number of changes to ensure clarity and consistency with international rules and procedures, in particular those of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), in the interests of protecting the marine environment.
The agreement also separates the administrative sanctions regime from the criminal sanctions regime provided for in the new draft directive on environmental crime (see EUROPE 13294/4), taking into account the differences between the legal systems of the Member States.
Finally, as requested by the European Parliament, EU countries and the European Commission will be communicating more on pollution incidents, best practices for combating pollution and follow-up measures, following the alerts issued by the European satellite-based oil spill and ship detection system, ‘CleanSeaNet’.
The agreement provides for digital monitoring of all high-reliability CleanSeaNet alerts, with a target of at least 25% being verified by the national competent authorities. A degree of flexibility has been introduced, to avoid imposing an excessive administrative burden and to recognise the diversity of situations in the Member States in terms of geographical location, resources and capacities.
“Member states must not falter in their duty to safeguard our marine environment. We need a concentrated effort, utilising advanced technologies like satellite monitoring and on-site inspections, to stamp out illegal discharges effectively”, reacted European Parliament rapporteur Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romanian), in a press release.
The provisional agreement must be approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council before coming into force. Member States will then have 30 months to transpose the provisions into their national legislation. This directive is part of the maritime safety package. The revised directive on the investigation of maritime accidents, which is also included in the package, was agreed on Tuesday 13 February (see EUROPE 13349/6). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)