Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-20-Speech-2-012"
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"en.20040420.2.2-012"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank Mr Sterckx, the Chairman of the Temporary Committee on improving safety at sea, Mr Jarzembowski, and the whole committee for the magnificent work that they have done to increase maritime safety.
With regard to anti-pollution measures, I would like to inform you that the amendments made to the Regulation Establishing the European Maritime Safety Agency, which extend its powers to combating sea pollution, have been finally approved.
The Commission will make the necessary amendments to the budget resulting from this change. I therefore call on the European Parliament to support the Commission’s requests to provide the Agency with the necessary resources in the debates on the budget for 2005.
We also believe that the publication of the black list of vessels that are banned from entering Union ports is an essential deterrent against this type of vessel approaching or travelling along European coastlines. As a preventive measure we are currently looking at reinforcing this concept.
With regard to the legislation currently being debated, I first of all wish to thank you for your support for the proposal for a directive establishing effective criminal sanctions for those responsible for sea pollution incidents. The Commission joins you in calling on the Council to take a decision on this matter.
Regarding the adoption of the Regulation on the International Safety Management Code, which seeks to promote a culture of safety and prevention of pollution, the Commission would like to thank you for the support that you gave in the plenary in February, and I trust that at its meeting in June the Council will adopt common positions on both subjects.
Regarding the future prospects for maritime legislation I will say that I gave you a few clues in January, which the Commission is currently considering. I welcome the fact that the report that we are discussing today shows that our approaches are in line with each other and I particularly note its ideas on investigations following accidents at sea, increasing traffic monitoring in Community waters, stepping up port State control and applying minimum criteria for flag states in the Union.
Some of these ideas, such as, for example, increasing the obligations of the Member States to pass on information on traffic or the role of the Agency in responses to incidents at sea are part of the plans that you have outlined for the creation of a coastguard service. I have explained the Commission’s position on this on various occasions. You stress, with strong arguments, the human factor and the correct application of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers. This Convention was partially incorporated into Community law in 2001, with the adoption of the Directive on the minimum level of training of seafarers.
The entry into force of the amendment to the Regulation establishing the Agency gives it powers to evaluate training for sailors provided in third countries.
I wish to finish my speech by highlighting the role that the Commission plays in terms of international relations. This week, during our visit to Russia for the European Union/Russia Summit, as part of the Association and Cooperation agreement, we have the firm intention of pointing out that in order for the International Maritime Organisation to adopt the amendment of the MARPOL Convention, which includes an accelerated phasing out of single-hulled vessels by April 2005, Russia has undertaken to provide for early phasing out and therefore to require that it be carried out. I would like to point out that, as has been accepted among charterers, accelerating the phasing out of single-hulled oil tankers and replacing them with double-hulled tankers is not resulting in any increase in chartering costs or in a shortage of transport capacity. This shows that the Commission did a good job and proposed schedules that were ambitious but realistic.
The Commission is closely monitoring the work being done on the IOPC regarding the modification of the international compensation system for oil pollution. Once again we regret the Council’s delay – and I use those words quite clearly – in requiring the Member States to ratify these agreements that have been adopted, which is going to delay the availability of the compensation if an accident occurs.
I am convinced that this work and the report being presented today will make a valuable contribution towards continuing to improve safety at sea in Europe and doing as much as possible to prevent further environmental catastrophes.
Summer is coming. I hope that we will not have to deal with any tragedies of this nature in the next few months, but imagine the scandal if anything did happen and the Member States had not ratified the recent agreements on the level of compensation.
I would like to point out that in the meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee held in London last week, the IMO designated the Baltic, the Canary Islands and the Galapagos Islands as Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas. In my opinion, this is a great achievement not only for the Commission, but also for the whole of the European Union, as the adoption of a series of international regulations in this field increases the protection of the interests of coastal States against the risk of pollution.
We are aware of the significance of the work done in the International Maritime Organisation and I therefore wish to reiterate my thanks to the European Parliament for its support for the Community’s membership of the IMO.
In order to promote the application of satisfactory maritime regulations, the Commission actively supports and promotes the work of the International Labour Office in the process of consolidating all the agreements on international maritime regulations, with a view to adopting a single agreement to which I believe the Community should be a contracting party.
Finally, we are working in close cooperation with the International Maritime Organisation to increase the responsibility of the flag state through inspection systems, in other words to combat flags of convenience.
Once again, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Parliament has shown how much importance it attaches to the Commission’s work. Following the
accident more than four years ago, during your mandate I wished to help drastically improve safety at sea, and I wish to particularly thank your for the support that you have given me and say, as I said at the start of my speech, that this legislature has been the legislature of safety at sea; the legislature in which, finally, the European Union has had the ambition and the decisiveness to genuinely protect its coasts and also to work at international level with determination, will and rigour to ensure that this protection is not only applied to our coasts and our seas but to all the seas in the world. As I have always said, the sea belongs to everyone, it is our heritage and treasure, both for humanity now and for future generations.
I would like to say that now that we are reaching the end of the legislature, we can be proud that, among other things, it has been the legislature of safety at sea. There have been other terrible incidents like the
or the
in the past, but the appropriate steps were simply not taken, practically no measures were adopted to prevent, alleviate or correct them or to safeguard against them happening again. In this case that was not what happened. In this case we have adopted measures and the Member States are acting, albeit not always in a satisfactory manner.
As I stated in my speech to the MARE Committee on 22 January 2004 as a result of the entry into force of the Directive establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system on 5 February, the Commission has already begun the appropriate violation proceedings for failure to inform it of transposition measures for this Directive. I must point out that to date only Germany, Denmark, Spain and Ireland have informed the Commission of the measures they have adopted to incorporate this text, which is fundamental for sea traffic, into national law.
The situation is, however, more satisfactory with regard to port State control and classification societies, as only one Member State of the Union of Fifteen has still failed to comply by communicating the measures it has taken to transpose the Directive on port State control.
The new Member States must have incorporated all Community legislation on safety at sea into their respective legal systems by 1 May. We are going to be absolutely firm on this point, because safety at sea is an important matter. I am well aware of your concerns regarding compliance with international and Community regulations by Cyprus and Malta and I want to tell you that we are being especially vigilant.
Following my last speech to the Temporary Committee, the Commission services conducted on-site inspections in those countries and we were able to verify considerable progress in incorporating Community law, although it must be said that we cannot yet say that the required objectives have been achieved. We need to continue to strengthen the administrative capacity of these countries. We will continue to monitor this in the near future.
In the context of the application of the legislation in force you have highlighted three points. I will spend a few moments on one of them. With regard to places of refuge, the evaluation of plans for providing refuge for ships in distress conducted by the Commission in cooperation with the European Maritime Safety Agency has now been completed. In addition, last month the Agency organised a day’s workshop on this subject with the national maritime authorities, which enabled the Member States to exchange experiences on the application of Article 20 of the Directive establishing a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system.
Currently the results of the evaluation process are being analysed in detail and, as promised, the Commission will be able to provide Parliament with a report that will include the conclusions of that evaluation and also the results of a study that the Agency was charged with on compensation for damage caused by the use of a place of refuge by a ship. Based on this information, and also taking into account what is raised in the conclusions of your report, we will assess any possible amendments or improvements to the texts adopted."@en1
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