Brussels, 02/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is pleased with the agreement concluded last Friday in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to decommission by 2015 single hull ships. During a coordination meeting, the European permanent representatives approved the draft international agreement, which should be transcribed into European law next June, in the framework of the adoption of the "Erika I" package to enhance maritime safety in Europe. This is a good international break through, stated the spokesperson for Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio.
The agreement concluded at the IMO will take effect in 2002 and provides for the phasing out of single hull ships in three stages: 1) 2003: decommissioning of oil tankers weighing over 20,000 tonnes built before 1973; 2) 2004: decommissioning of ships built between 1974 and 1975; 3) 2005: decommissioning of ships built in 1976/77.
Some ships of over 25 years of age will be authorised to navigate after 2015, but the European Union obtained, with the support of Cyprus and Malta, a derogation that allows it to ban access to its ports of such vessels. France, Italy, Belgium and Ireland - that would like dispensation to extend to territorial waters also - are expected to insist that the European legislation cover such waters. Europeans would also have liked ships of 25 years of age to be eliminated on 1 January of the year when they were built, rather than from the specific "anniversary" date.
Commissioner de Palacio welcomed this agreement behind which the European Union had been the driving force, as it favoured rapid adoption of an agreement. She stressed in a press release that Member States and the European Parliament had shown solidarity of action. The Commission recalls in its press release that the new IMO agreement comes almost ten years ahead of the timetable fixed in 1992 by this organisation.