Brussels -- On Thursday 5
December, just five days before the new EU Ship Recycling Regulation was
published, ship recyclers from Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands,
Denmark, Lithuania, Spain and Sweden participated to the first green ship
recycling conference organised by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform to discuss the
future of their industry.
The Regulation, published
on 10 December, is set to enter into force on 30 December and will be fully
applicable some time between 2015 and 2019. Especially, implications of the new
EU Ship Recycling Regulation were discussed, including the opportunities that
would be provided by a financial incentive pushing ship owners towards clean
and safe ship recycling facilities, and to what extent Guidance Notes on the
new requirements for ship recycling facilities is needed.
A further
incentive to flag out
During the meeting, the
ship recyclers and the Platform met with a representative of the European
Commission and expressed their disappointment with the new Regulation which
only covers the clean and safe recycling of EU-flagged ships. Most end-of-life
vessels are registered under non-EU flags and it is expected that the new
Regulation will provide a further incentive to flag out.
“European ship recyclers
exist and are willing to take in a much larger share of the global end-of-life
fleet,” said Ingvild Jenssen, policy advisor of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
“For years the shipping industry and European Commission have been repeating
that there is not enough clean and safe ship recycling capacity in Europe, and
that ship owners have no choice but to sell their end-of-life vessels to
dangerous beach-breaking yards in South Asia. We demonstrated with this meeting
that this is only because there has been no political will to recognise and
support the industry in Europe.”
No
competition without EU support
Facilities around the
world that satisfy a list of requirements outlined by the new Regulation will
be approved and listed by the European Commission. EU flagged end-of-life ships
will only be allowed to use these facilities. European ship recyclers will have
to compete with facilities worldwide, and without EU support, they fear they
will be unable to do so. Without a financial incentive to encourage ship owners
to opt for better ship recycling in the EU, European ship recyclers expressed
that they would not be able to attract more business.
“We have been calling on
the EU to come up with a financial incentive to support green and safe ship
recycling for years,” said Ingvild Jenssen. “Without such a mechanism, ship
owners will find ways to circumvent the Regulation and continue to send their
ships to substandard yards where workers’ lives are put at risk and the
environment is severely polluted.”
Source: recycling portal.
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