Policymakers, stakeholders and
NGO's express the need to ensure that ship owners are forced to apply the
polluter pays principle following the plenary vote on ship recycling.
Ingvild Jenssen is a policy
advisor at NGO shipbreaking platform
Without a financial incentive,
circumvention of European law covering end-of-life vessels will persist and
European ship owners will be allowed to continue to seek significant financial
profits by externalising environmental and human health costs to the
shipbreaking beaches of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, and to the exploited
workforce there.
The new Ship recycling regulation
does nothing to prevent ship owners from jumping register to a non-EU flag
prior to sending their ships for breaking in order to avoid falling under the
requirements of the law. In 2012, three quarters of European owned vessels
broken on the beaches of South Asia were registered under non-EU flags such as
Panama, Liberia and Bahamas. With the new regulation being a further incentive
to flag out, vessels still registered under a flag of an EU member state at
end-of-life is likely to decline even further to a disillusioning number of
ships, rendering the impact of the ship recycling regulation non-existent for
the purpose of improving ship recycling practices.
The new regulation asks the
European commission to elaborate on the possibilities of a financial mechanism
to enhance clean and safe ship recycling. Recent studies have proposed an array
of possible mechanisms to implement the polluter pays principle for end-of-life
ships and have clearly shown that a financial incentive for proper ship
recycling is legally feasible, enforceable, and necessary to ensure compliance
with the law.
Sabine Wils is the GUE/NGL group
shadow rapporteur on Ship recycling
Unfortunately, the original
report on ship recycling changed substantially due to plenary votes and
trialogue outcomes. In fact, the report has been watered down so significantly
that I could not vote in favour but voted against it.
Why? Well, ships which are going
to get scrapped are classified as hazardous waste and should be dismantled in
proper facilities. However, last year alone at least 265 European ships were
recycled on beaches in South Asia (the so-called beaching). The conditions on
these beaches are horrible for the workers and the environment respectively:
many workers suffer from severe injuries due to hardly any safety at work
(gashes at their feet and arms, asbestos inhalation, falls from great heights etc.).
In addition, oil and other chemicals flow into the sea or ooze onto the beach
while metal objects of all sizes and other waste is rotting away without
necessary provisions.
In contradiction to what some
MEPs say, the report will not make beaching impossible. In addition, the report
lacks a monetary incentive (either realised with an extra harbour fee or a
fund) directed at ship-owners to recycle their ships only in a safe and
environmentally-friendly way. Thus, the two most important issues concerning
ship recycling are not sufficiently tackled since the interests of the
ship-owner is to make as much money as possible from scrapped ships take
priority over a strong and sound regulation.
Isabelle Ryckbost is secretary
general of European sea ports organisation (ESPO)
The new EU regulation will allow
ships flying the flag of an EU member state to be scrapped outside the EU
provided that strict standards are met. These standards effectively mean the
end of "beaching" where ships are simply taken apart on a beach, with
consequences for human health and the environment. Regular inspections,
commission assessments and an increased role for NGOs will assist in ensuring
compliance with these standards. Finally, under the new regulation, the
commission is required to come up with a proposal on the feasibility of an
incentive mechanism three years after entry into force.
We welcomed the balanced outcome
of the political process on ship recycling. Conscious ship recycling is an
important issue with serious social and environmental impacts. In that respect,
ESPO urges member states to ratify the 2009 Hong Kong international convention
for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships as soon as possible,
allowing its global application. Furthermore, we remain at the disposition of
all parties involved in view of further discussing the appropriate application
of the polluter pays principle in ship recycling.
Source:
Parliament. 25 October 2013
http://www.theparliament.com/latest-news/article/newsarticle/strasbourg-plenary-ship-recycling-vote-recieves-mixed-reaction/
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