YES TO CLEAN SHIPS – YES
TO POLLUTER PAYS – YES TO GREEN JOBS IN EUROPE
Petition to the European Parliament
and to the European Council for an enhanced ship recycling regulation 15 April
2013
We, the undersigned organisations active in
environmental protection, sustainable development, health, labour and human
rights, call on the European Parliament and the European Council to strengthen
the proposed regulation on ship recycling (COM(2012)118) as presented by the
European Commission on 23 March 2012.
We believe that the proposed regulation will not
prevent European owned ships – making up 40% of the world’s fleet – from being
scrapped on the beaches of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan in foreseeable time.
Nor do we believe that the proposed regulation will lead to substantial
improvements to existing shipbreaking facilities in South Asia to lessen the
severe environmental damage, the human rights abuses and loss of lives
occurring at these facilities.
We call on the European Parliament and the Council of
the European Union to work together to finally put an end to the breaking of
ships on tidal beaches, to take care for workers’ safety, to provide adequate
protection of the marine environment from ship-borne pollutants and to hold the
shipping industry accountable.
A dangerous precedent in
EU environmental law
We believe that the proposal in its present form sets
an extremely dangerous precedent insofar as it allows the EU to unilaterally
withdraw from the UN Basel Convention. Under the Basel Ban Amendment - adopted
in 1995 by the Parties to the Basel Convention and ratified by the EU in 1997 -
exports of hazardous wastes such as end-of-life vessels to non-OECD countries,
notably developing countries, are prohibited.
The European Commission has proposed to remove
end-of-life ships from its implementing legislation of the Basel Convention,
the EU Waste Shipment Regulation (EC 1013/2006). Under international law,
however, such a unilateral withdrawal by the EU is illegal, as the Basel
Convention has not removed ships from its definition of hazardous waste. The
European Parliament and the Council must consider the gravity of this misstep.
We urge the European Parliament and the Council to
improve the proposal so that it will remain in conformity with the binding legal
provisions of the Basel Convention.
No perpetuation of
beaching of ships
In addition, the Commission proposal lacks clarity
when it comes to banning beaching, namely the sending of end-of-life ships
flying a European flag and/or owned by European companies to the beaches in
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for dismantling. Nowhere does the proposal
address the role of flags-of-convenience as a root of the systematic disregard
of the international regulations and the continuous illegal export of toxic
wastes to non-OECD countries.
The well-known loopholes, which allow shipowners to
easily circumvent the Basel Convention and the Waste Shipment Regulation, must
be closed. At the same time, the implementation of the already existing regimes
must be enforced and ships must remain under the Waste Shipment Regulation.
A green shipping industry
in Europe
We demand that the new regulation includes an
incentive to dismantle ships within the European Union and to support the
European recycling industry as well as the environmentally sound and safe
management of waste. Moreover, the proposal should draw a clear link between
the support of pre-cleaning of the ships throughout their operational life and
the development of green jobs in Europe. Not only would classification
societies and other service providers benefit from mandatory inventories and
auditing schemes for yards, but R&D within shipbuilding and dismantling,
recycling and waste management, as well as refitting operations would also
provide sorely needed jobs.
A financial mechanism to
establish the polluter pays principle
The current proposal does not display any ambition to
hold the shipping industry accountable for externalizing the costs of the
recycling of their vessels onto developing countries. Whereas EU environmental
law clearly supports the polluter pays principle for other industries, it shies
away from establishing a financial mechanism for the shipping industry in order
to include those who benefit from the ships into the bill.
We demand an EU
regulation on ship recycling that –
·
upholds the current
prohibition on the export of ships containing hazardous materials to developing
countries and to enforce the existing ban;
·
explicitly bans the
method of beaching ships for dismantling;
·
covers not only
EU-flagged ships (as only 8% of end-of-life vessels still use EU flags),
but also incorporates a financial mechanism to include European-owned vessels
and ships calling at EU ports;
·
promotes green ship
building and ship recycling within the EU (cradle-to-cradle principle);
·
establishes
the polluter pays principle and holds the shipping industry accountable.
Signed by:
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, Belgium
Patrizia Heidegger
Executive Director
The Platform’s member
organisations also signed this petition:
Basel Action Network (BAN), USA
Jim Puckett
Executive Director
Ban Asbestos, France
Annie Thébaud-Mony
Spokesperson and Chair of the Henri Pézerat
association
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA),
Bangladesh
Rizwana Hasan
Chief Executive
Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies, Bangladesh
Nazrul Islam Khan
Executive Director & Secretary General
The Bellona Foundation, Norway
Svend Søyland
Senior international advisor
The Corporate Accountability Desk – The Other Media,
India
Madhumitta Dutta
Spokesperson
Transport & Environment, Belgium
Bill Hemmings
Programme manager
Fédération Internationale des Droits de l’Homme
(FIDH), France
Elin Wrzoncki
Head of globalization and human rights office
Greenpeace, Netherlands
Marietta Harjono
Toxics Campaigner
International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), UK
Laurie Kazan-Allen
Coordinator
Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE),
India
Ritwick Dutta
Environmental Lawyer
Stichting De Noordzee/The North Sea Foundation,
Netherlands
Merijn Hougee
Project Manager
The Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and
Environment Foundation (OSHE), Bangladesh
Repon Chowdhury
Executive Director
Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI),
Pakistan
Kanwar Iqbal
Senior Research Associate
Toxics Link, India
Satish Sinha
Associate Director
Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), Bangladesh
Muhammad Ali Shahin
Platform Project Coordinator in Bangladesh
This petition was also
signed by the following European NGOs:
Catalan Oceanographic Association, Spain
Fernando Condal Domingo
Marine biologist
Clydebank Asbestos Group, UK
Hope Roberston
Secretary
Ecologistas en Acción, Spain
Lydia Chaparro Elias
Sea campaign coordinator
European Environmental Bureau, Belgium
Jeremy Wates
Secretary General
Greenpeace European Unit, Belgium
Jorgo Riss
Director
Legambiente, Italy
Antonio Pergolizzi
National coordinator – Ecomafie observatory
LPN – Liga para a Protecção da Natureza, Portugal
Sidónio Paes
Fisheries Policy Officer
LuminaConsult, Belgium
Roberto Ferrigno
Executive Director
MEDITERRANEAN SOS Network, Greece
Ermioni Frezouli
Environmental Policy Coordinator
Robin des Bois, France
Jacky Bonnemains
President
Seas at Risk, Belgium
John Maggs
Policy Advisor
Waste Free Oceans, Belgium
Bernard Merkx
Co-founder and Project Manager
Zentralinstitut für Arbeitsmedizin und Maritime
Medizin, Germany
Dr. Evelyn Glensk
Source:
shipbreaking platform. 15 April 2013
http://www.shipbreakingplatform.org/shipbrea_wp2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Petition-for-safe-and-sound-ship-recycling-EP-and-EU-Council-15-April-2013-FINAL.pdf
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