Dr Nikos Mikelis, non-executive director of GMS,
gives his opinion on the allegations made by the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking
regarding the proposed fate of the car carrier Global Spirit:
The article of 4th of June “Will Belgium step up to
shipbreaking challenge” repeats the allegations made by the NGO Platform on
Shipbreaking that the car carrier Global Spirit, which is currently in Antwerp
loading cars for delivery in West Africa, is about to violate European law and
consequently that the ship should be detained by the Belgian authorities. The
alleged violation is that, after discharging its cargo in West Africa, the ship
will head to the “infamous ship breaking beaches in India” and thus violate the
Waste Shipment Regulation of the European Union.
The subject of ship recycling is a particularly
complex one and repetition of the usual rhetoric of the NGO Platform does
nothing to reflect the reality in today’s ship recycling industry, nor the
regulatory situation of this case, nor the seriousness of the case.
Firstly, looking at the letter of the law, it needs
to be pointed out that it is not at all clear-cut whether the alleged situation
of the Global Spirit would create a violation of the European Waste Shipment
Regulation. The Regulation certainly forbids the export of hazardous waste to
non-OECD countries. The Directorate General for the Environment of the European
Commission has tried over the years to apply the Regulation also to cases of
end-of-life ships, but the only enforceable interpretation of “exporting” a
ship (or to use the language of the Regulation “dispatching” a ship) is when a
ship, regardless of flag, is sent from a port in the European Union to a non-OECD
location for recycling.
However, the Global Spirit, on departing from Europe,
is destined to a West African port with a cargo of cars. Whether the ship in
this case is being dispatched to West Africa, or as alleged by the NGO to India
for recycling, is open to interpretation, and only the interpretation of a
court would be final.
Most of the few attempts that have been made over the
years to enforce the Waste Shipment Regulation to end-of-life ships have ended
costing money to the European taxpayer and embarrassment to the relevant
administration. The usual scenario starts with the NGO Platform campaigning for
the detention of an end-of-life ship that is due to depart from Europe, and
evolves when the authorities of a Member State become convinced to take action.
As less than 5 percent of the world’s ship recycling capacity resides in OECD
countries and also as the mechanisms of the Waste Shipment Regulation do not
address ships, shipping, recycling yards, or any safety issues, it is not
surprising that the regulation has not made any impact to ship recycling.
The European Commission calculated that in 2009, 91
percent of European end-of-life ships had avoided or evaded the provisions of
its Waste Shipment Regulation. Recognizing the need to remove end-of-life ships
from the scope of this regulation, in 2011 the Commission announced the
development of a new European Regulation to address ship recycling in the
period before the entry into force of the Hong Kong Convention, which has been
developed by the IMO specifically for the international regulation of the ship
recycling industry. The Hong Kong Convention is slowly moving towards its entry
into force, while the new European Regulation on Ship Recycling was adopted and
entered into force in 2013 and will start applying to European flagged ships in
two to three years’ time.
In the middle of these developments, the present
actions of the NGO in the case of the Global Spirit come as a stiff reminder to
European and non-European countries for the urgent need to ratify the Hong Kong
Convention as a matter of priority, so that the recycling of ships can be
regulated in a rational and effective manner.
The bottom line is that European Union countries are
forced by activists to enforce an unworkable regulation. Non-European countries
end up with the problem that ships flying their flag, when “caught” in European
ports, can be forced to abide by requirements that are costly, ineffective and
counterproductive. What may not be so clear to your readers is that ships
flying non-European Union flags will continue to be subjected to this regime even
after the new European Regulation comes into full application.
Note that none of this serves the stated goals of
improving safety and environmental protection in the recycling yards of the
developing world.
Dr Mikelis graduated in naval architecture from the
University of Newcastle and obtained Master’s and Doctorate degrees from London
University. He has worked in ship classification; and then for a shipping
company as superintendent, technical manager and then director. In 2006 he
joined the IMO, from where he retired at the end of 2012 as Head, Marine
Pollution Prevention and Ship Recycling section. Currently he is non-executive
director of GMS, the world’s leading cash buyer, and independent consultant.
He has served in senior positions in shipping
industry bodies, such as Council Member of Intertanko, Chairman of the
Intertanko Safety, Technical & Environmental Committee, member of the
Safety of Navigation & Protection of the Marine Environment Committee of
the Union of Greek Shipowners, and Chairman of the London Greek Technical
Committee of Det norske Veritas. He has written over 50 learned papers and
numerous articles in the maritime press and is a freeman of the City of London.
Source: maritime executive. 5 June
2014
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