Earlier this month, MarEx
reported that, for the first time in Europe, public prosecutors are bringing
criminal charges against a shipowner – Seatrade – for having sold vessels to
scrap yards in countries “where current ship dismantling methods endangers the
lives and health of workers and pollutes the environment.”
The case is being heard in a
Rotterdam Court, and the Dutch Public Prosecutor calls for a fine of EUR 2.35
million ($2.9 million) and confiscation of the profits Seatrade made on the
sale of four ships, as well as a six month prison sentence for three of Seatrade’s
top executives.
According to the prosecutor,
Seatrade opted for using a cash buyer, rather than recycling the ships in a
safe and clean manner, for purely financial reasons.
GMS has denied being the
cash buyer involved, although initially cited in a statement by the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform, and MarEx spoke to Dr. Nikos Mikelis, Non-Executive
Director for GMS, to find out how he sees the case:
“The fact is that we do not
know the circumstances behind the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s decision, nor the
defence case of Seatrade. Therefore it is not possible, nor wise, to comment on
what took place, or on what is the likely outcome of the criminal prosecution.
“Reading, however, the
prosecutor’s statement that: “Seatrade opted to use a cash buyer rather than
recycle the ships in a safe and clean manner” leads me to think that the
Prosecutor’s understanding has been shaped by the NGO Platform who equates cash
buyers to the exploitation of workers and to the destruction of the
environment. The fact that almost all end-of-life commercial ships are sold
through cash buyers must be just an inconvenient fact to the Platform; in the
same way as the development in the last few years of responsible recycling
programs and contracts between cash buyers and shipowners.
“For the sake of improved
recycling standards in line with the Hong Kong International Convention and
also for the sake of Europe's shipping, I hope that Seatrade and its lawyers
will have in their possession all the arguments they need to defend this
strange case. If the ideology of the Platform prevails then either the fleet of
ships flying European flags will somewhat shrink through flagging out, or
European shipowning will somewhat decline through marginal loss in
competitiveness, or possibly both.
“The Seatrade court case is
an important, if not bleak, development which underlines how vital it is to
adopt realistic and achievable regulations in the first place. The Seatrade
prosecution relies on the enforcement of the European Waste Shipment Regulation,
which was not developed to regulate end-of-life ships and which has been proven
to be the wrong instrument for ship recycling. After all, this is why the
European Union is replacing this legislation with the new European Regulation
on Ship Recycling for European flagged ships in less than one year’s time.”
Source:
maritime
executive. 17 February 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment