The
Danish Environment Minister, Esben Lunde Larsen, had to answer to the
Parliament yesterday following questions put to the Government by all the
opposition parties. The long list of questions had been drafted two months
earlier, prompted by the revelations of Maersk’s shipbreaking practices in
South Asia by the Danish investigative journalists, Danwatch, and the daily
newspaper Politiken. All opposition parties called on the Danish Government to
ensure that Maersk’s end-of-life vessels cannot be broken down in beaching
yards, The Shipbreaking Platform website said.
Apart
from a semi-attempt to filibuster by reading out the already available written
answers and paraphrasing the Hong Kong Convention, the Minister insisted on
quoting technical details and the obligation to follow the law. He was unable
to give political direction on how the Government would work to stop Danish
companies’ use of the polluting and dangerous beaching practices in South Asia
and on Maersk’s threat to swap the Danish flag for a non-EU flag if the EU does
not approve ship recycling on the beaches of Alang. The MPs present,
representing the spectrum of Danish opposition political parties (including
Social democrat member of parliament, Christian Rabjerg Madsen, and the head of
Socialistisk Folkeparti, Pia Olsen Dyhr, as well as Ida Auken from Radikale
Venstre, Christian Poll from Alternativet, and Marie Reumert Gjerding from
Enhedslisten) and the Chair (Pia Adelsteen from Dankse Folkeparti), incessantly
pressed the Minister to answer concrete and direct questions on the Danish
government’s position on beaching, Maersk’s threat to flag out, and whether the
government is pressing the EU Commission to list beaching yards in Alang on the
upcoming EU list of accepted facilities world-wide.
If
ships were broken on beaches in Denmark there would be an uproar, the MPs
stated. They asked the Minister to outline how he thought safe working
conditions and protection from pollution could ever be ensured when dismantling
a vessel in the intertidal zone of a beach, and clearly requested the Minister
to provide strong political support to end beaching. To all the questions and
comments, the Minister however repeatedly appealed to his ignorance about the
shipbreaking industry and to the literal text of the EU guidelines under the
Ship Recycling Regulation. Whilst the Minister admitted that flagging out to
circumvent EU law is not compatible with responsible business practices, he
refused to answer how he would make sure that Danish shipping companies only
use facilities that are on the upcoming EU List of approved recycling
practices, and which is not expected to include facilities that use the
beaching method. Clearly, Minister Lunde Larsen, in the two months he had to
prepare before the meeting with the MPs, chose to only be briefed by the
interested lobby groups who promote beaching practices; most notably the
biggest company in Denmark, Maersk.
“It
is shocking that the Minister gave no political comment or direction, but
rather only contained a copy-pasted quotation fed to him by Maersk. It reveals
the lack of political backbone when we see that Maersk is in such a powerful
position to issue statements on behalf of the Danish government and that the
Minister seems to believe this is acceptable,” said Ingvild Jenssen, Policy
Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
The
insistent drilling by the MPs to the Minister on the government’s position on
beaching left no time for Esben Lunde Larsen to answer all questions. The MPs
would have particularly liked to go into more depth on issues related to the
government policy to enhance the ship recycling industry in Denmark, and
crucially on the government’s engagement to investigate on the illegal export
of the Maersk-owned oil production and storage tanker, North Sea Producer, from
the UK to Bangladesh. At the end of the meeting, Pia Olsen Dyhr (SF) called for
another meeting with the Minister to discuss these issues more in detail.
Source: port news. 16 December 2016
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