Brussels, 21/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Committee on Transport adopted on Monday three reports that reinforce the measures proposed in March by the European Commission to strengthen maritime safety in Europe. These reports - by Mr Hadzidakis on the elimination of single hull vessels, Mr Watts on the control of ships in ports, and Mr Ortuondo Larrea on inspection bodies ("classification societies") - will be discussed by the European Parliament on 29 November and adopted at first reading on 30 November, during the next plenary session in Brussels.
The Chairman of the Transport Committee, Konstantinos Hatzidakis, denied the accusations of slowness that France had addressed to MEPs after the sinking of the Ievoli Sun. "Contrary to French accusations, we had for a long while contemplated giving our views before the session of the Transport Council in December". According to Konstantinos Hatzidakis, it is not very likely that the Council will agree to the amendments of the Parliament concerning the ban on certain ships in European ports and the revision of the compensatory amounts due by the control bodies in case of negligence. It is therefore likely that the whole of this "maritime package" will not be adopted by the Council and the Parliament before next year. We recall that the European Commission should present on 29 November or 6 December a new package of measures concerning, among other things, the creation of a European maritime agency and modification of the rules of liability and compensation in the event of accident.
The Konstantinos Hatzidakis report (EPP, GR) on the rapid introduction of double hull oil tankers follows, in its broad lines, the compromise reached at the Transport Council of 2 October. In other words, it gives priority to the conclusion of an international agreement for elimination of single hull vessels, in the context of the International Maritime Organisation, without ruling out the adoption of measures within the EU in the event of failure at the IMO. In this outlook, the report supports the draft agreement defined in October at the IMO with the support of EU Member States (which should be confirmed in April), which provides for the elimination of single hulls between 2003 and 2015 or 2017 according to their date of construction and tonnage. This timetable is similar to that fixed unilaterally by the United States. In order to limit the risks that the rapid elimination of single hulls (the large part of the current oil fleet) may have on oil supplies for the EU, the rapporteur considers it necessary to allow a tanker to be used if it is not 28 years of age in 2010, subject to the most stringent inspection. Konstantinos Hatzidakis also proposes to raise the size of ships concerned to 3,000 tonnes, that is, a compromise between the threshold of 600 tonnes advocated by the Commission and that of 5,000 tonnes proposed by the Council. The aim is to allow supply in oil of insular EU regions. Finally, the rapporteur did away with the legislative proposal for the pricing system for access to port services, which would have given preference to double hull oil tankers. According to Konstantinos Hatzidakis, such a measure would put a strain on the budget of shipowners, who already have to modernise their fleet and could, in time, reduce the resources of ports as "single hulls" are destined to disappear.
The report by Francis Watts (PES, UK) on controls in European ports goes further than the measures recommended by the Commission and, even more so, beyond the Council's position which had reduced the number of vessels to be inspected. It introduces three measures: 1) obligation to install a "black box" on ships; 2) ban on entering European ports for ships registered in a State which has been on the black list of the Paris memorandum of understanding for more than three consecutive years. The aim, the rapporteur told the press, is to discourage the use of "flags of convenience known for their lax approach, such as Belize, Honduras, Syria or Lebanon"; 3) ban ships which have been kept in port after controls more than three times in a row, whatever their age.
The report by Josu Ortuondo Larrea (Greens, E) on the bodies carrying out inspections on behalf of Member States (classification societies), introduces a clause for revision of the amounts of compensation due by the control body or the administration in the event of accident. This revision would come three years after the entry into force of the directive. The rapporteur reintroduced this clause according to a compromise solution elaborated with the Council had been refused by the Commission.