Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-20-Speech-1-114"
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"en.20031020.8.1-114"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted that the campaign that we, together with a few members of our group, have launched will bear fruit. I am also very pleased with the statement that the Commissioner has made here, which has filled us with hope.
I fear, however, that the steaming of the two ships to the United Kingdom is part of a bigger plan to set up a larger waste merry-go-round to countries such as India and Bangladesh. If these ships are allowed to cross the Atlantic, then this opens up the floodgates and sets a precedent. After that, it will be legally possible, against the spirit of the Basel Convention, to ship waste to countries that do not have a sound social or environmental policy.
Over the past few years, all kinds of attempts have been made to prevent the export of waste and achieve a system whereby waste is processed as close to source as possible. Having ships cross the sea in this way is diametrically contrary to this. This is a very negative message from the United States, which has already put a few environmental treaties on ice. Surely that country has sufficient capacity and expertise at its disposal to scrap these ships itself.
We should not point the finger only at the United States. It does, of course, have the cooperation of an EU Member State, which thus becomes, at the very least, an accessory to the enfeeblement of the Basel Convention. Moreover, that country has mapped out a course for these high-risk ships, as a result of which other Member States are put at risk.
If we look for yet other accomplices, we end up once again with the International Maritime Organisation, which offers little in the way of cooperation when it comes to enforcing compliance with the Basel Convention. It is high time this changed. For this, the EU must adopt a united stance.
Europe, too, exports old ships to the South for scrap, without their dangerous waste being processed first. A list is currently circulating of 144 ships that are ready for scrapping in the South.
We are therefore relying on the Commission to create a legal framework as soon as possible in order to put a stop to this. We would thus ask for a maintenance policy for European end-of-life vessels. On 27 October, the Council of Environment Ministers will be holding a meeting. This is, therefore, a good opportunity to give a warning shot and take a legislative initiative."@en1
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