Brussels, 21/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - Greenpeace has sent a complaint against Spain to the European Commission for violating EU law in its handling of the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige. Greenpeace's objective is to open a procedure against the Spanish authorities, which it accuses of wrongfully towing the oil tanker away from the Galician coast, thus aggravating the pollution rather than attempting to contain the damage to the environment and public health.
"Spain clearly violated EU legislation on waste. The attitude of the Spanish government has led to an environmental catastrophe. The European Commission should hold Spain responsible for this violation", declared Jorgo Iwasaki-Riss of Greenpeace European Unit.
The complaint, which was addressed to the Commission's DG Environment, details- with support from Community legislation- an infringement of the EU Directive on Waste (91/156/EEC amending 75/442/EEC, published in the Official Journal L078 of 26 March 1991).
Greenpeace uses the following arguments for its complaint:
1) The heavy fuel carried by the oil tanker Prestige corresponds to the definition of waste under the terms of the aforementioned directive, and appears in the EU Waste Catalogue as established by Commission Decision 2000/532/EC;
2) By deciding to tow the Prestige away from the Spanish coast, notwithstanding the adverse weather conditions and despite the risk of the fuel continuing to spill out into the ocean, Spain failed to respect its obligation under the Directive to recover or dispose of this waste adequately and safely, especially "without endangering human health and without using processes or methods which could harm the environment" (article 4 of the Directive).
Greenpeace spokesperson Lorenzo Consoli, believes that the Commission has "decided not to open a procedure against Spain for political reasons", which, he says, led to "a crisis meeting of DG Environment last week". Pia Ahrenkilde, spokesperson for Margot Wallström, the Commissioner for the Environment, said: "we are currently examining the complaint. At this stage, no infringement has been identified, but the Commission will look further into the issue before making a statement".