Brussels, 05/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The temporary commission into the sinking of the Prestige adopted on Monday afternoon in Brussels its report, to be submitted to the European Parliament plenary on 21 April in Strasbourg. The report was adopted by 25 votes to 1, with 16 abstentions, announced the president of the temporary commission, German Christian Democrat, Georg Jarzembowski, who estimated that abstentions were mainly due to the large number of amendments adopted and the fact that some MEPs wanted to wait till the final version until they gave their verdicts. Jarzembowski pointed out that a small delegation of the temporary commission went to Barcelona to the hearing of the ship's captain. He insisted on the need for Member States to apply international and European standards in maritime safety matters and appealed for the setting up in Member States of rapid reaction structures that would allow disasters be dealt with more effectively.
The rapporteur, Belgian Liberal Dirk Sterckx said that the Spanish authorities had claimed that 43,000 tonnes of oil had been recovered and 40,000 tonnes were still in the wreck and had to be pumped out when weather conditions permitted. Nobody knows where the other 20,000 have gone to, which was still a "threat", explained the MEP. Sterckx also highlighted the contradictions between the captain's affirmations, which mentions a loss of 2,000-3,000 tonnes on the first day and the report by the Spanish authorities which mentioned losses that were larger at the beginning of the sinking. Based n Article 73 of the Montego Bay Convention, the report calls on the Spanish legal authorities to authorise the captain to go home and set out a deadline for the next legal proceedings. Sterckx also wanted negotiations to begin, particularly with Russia, to strengthen inspections of ships.