Stavros Dimas News

The European Commission today presented an EU strategy to make the dismantling of old ships safer for workers and the environment. Every year between 200 and 600 large merchant ships are taken apart for their valuable scrap metal. Many ships taken out of service in Europe end up being dismantled on beaches in South Asia. A lack of environmental protection and safety measures results in high accident rates, health risks and extensive pollution of wide stretches of the coast. The proposed strategy on better ship dismantling includes actions to help implement key elements of an international Convention on safe ship recycling, due to be concluded in May 2009.

The European Commission welcomes today's positive second-reading vote by the European Parliament on a new marine fuel Directive. With this vote, the EU has finalised important legislation to cut sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particle emissions from seagoing ships. SO2 is an air pollutant which acidifies lake and forest ecosystems and harms human health. Particles can cause serious breathing problems and premature death. Ships have become the single biggest source of SO2 in the EU because the maritime sector has lagged behind land-based industry in environmental improvement. Today’s agreement will reduce ship SO2 in the EU by over 500,000 tonnes a year from 2006.

The European Commission is taking steps to make the dismantling of ships safer and less damaging to the environment. In a consultation paper published May 22, the commission does not present a completed plan but suggests actions to be taken in the European Union until the process now underway to develop an international convention on safe ship recycling is completed. E.U. member states need to take action on protecting workers and the environment until that time, Stavros Dimas, the E.C.’s environment commissioner, pointed out in a statement. The E.C.’s so-called “green paper” calls for a financing scheme to fund ship dismantling, which could come from levies on the shipping industry.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is to collaborate in efforts to mount a coordinated response from UN agencies and other concerned parties, including regional Governments, to the oil spill currently affecting the coastal and marine environments of Lebanon and Syria. The spill, estimated to be one of the largest ever to affect the Mediterranean, follows an incident in mid-July in which an oil storage unit at a power plant in Jiyyeh, 30 km south of Beirut, sustained bombing damage during the current conflict. Theme: --Select Story Tmeme-- Anchor Handling Tugs Articulated Tug Barge (ATB) Ballast Water Management Barges Bulk…

The European Commission proposed an ambitious strategy to protect Europe’s marine environment. The Thematic Strategy on the Protection and Conservation of the Marine Environment aims to ensure that all EU marine waters are environmentally healthy by 2021 - thereby protecting this precious asset which is the resource base upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend. This is the second Thematic Strategy that the Commission adopts following the provisions of the 6th Environmental Action programme. It will be a key component of the future Maritime Policy which will be proposed by the Commission in 2006. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: “Europe’s seas and oceans make a huge contribution to our quality of life and our economic prosperity…