Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-03-13-Speech-1-096"
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"en.20000313.5.1-096"2
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"Mr President, every day five million items of solid waste are thrown overboard from ships. This rubbish drifts across the seas and ends up on beaches, severely damaging the environment and marine life. As a result one million birds and a hundred thousand marine mammals and sea turtles are killed each year. The MARPOL Convention aims to prevent pollution from ships but legislation is clearly necessary to ensure the convention is enforced. That is why this directive is so important and why tonight I am pleased to welcome the progress that has been made in Council to reach a common position which will force ships to dispose of their waste at port reception facilities.
I also commend the work of the rapporteur, whose commitment reflects the strength of feeling within our committee to tackling this particular problem and a strong desire amongst parliamentarians of all parties to call a halt to this environmentally disastrous practice. I particularly welcome his strong support for the proposal that, in the interests of improving pollution prevention and avoiding distortions of competition, the environmental requirements should apply to all ships irrespective of the flag they fly and adequate waste reception facilities be made available in all ports throughout the Community.
An area where British Labour Members take issue with the rapporteur is the way in which the polluter-pays principle is to be applied. The principle is one we strongly support but we believe it can be more effectively enforced if Member States retain the power to establish their own charging systems appropriate to their own circumstances. For example, in the UK the system by which a ship pays the waste collector each time it uses waste facilities, without the port getting involved, works well. It is based on a consensus which has been forged by all the players, including the ports and environmental groups like RSPB and the World Wildlife Fund.
However, we share the rapporteur's concern that different charging systems should not lead to greater risk of maritime pollution. That is why we back the Council proposal to strengthen the review clause to ensure the impact of the directive is monitored regularly."@en1
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