European Court News

Nigerian migrants who survived a deadly sea crossing last year filed a lawsuit against Italy for violating their rights by supporting Libya’s efforts to return them to North Africa, their lawyers said on Tuesday.Seventeen plaintiffs petitioned the European Court of Human Rights last week, Violeta Moreno-Lax, a legal advisor for the Global Legal Action Network, told reporters. She was among four lawyers and several humanitarian groups involved in the case.The migrants say Italy violated multiple articles of the European Convention on Human Rights…

A South African court ruled on Thursday that a seized ship carrying a Moroccan cargo of phosphate from the disputed Western Sahara should remain in port until the case goes to trial or security is posted, a lawyer for the Polisario independence movement said. The Polisario Front alleges the 50,000 tonne shipment en route to New Zealand was illegally taken from Western Sahara territory and went to court to have the cargo seized. The case is a test of Polisario's new legal tactic in its long-running conflict with Morocco over Western Sahara, a disputed territory where the two sides fought a war until a 1991 ceasefire and where U.N. talks have failed to reach an accord.

A Norwegian shipping firm on Thursday denied a tanker it manages had violated a European court ruling after Western Sahara's Polisario movement accused it of illegally transporting an oil cargo through disputed territory it claims. The Polisario independence movement this week called on the European Union and French authorities to seize a France-bound cargo being transported on the Gibraltar-flagged Key Bay because the tanker had made a port call to Moroccan-controlled Laayoune on Jan. The Polisario said the tanker's call to Laayoune had rendered its cargo illegal as it had violated a ruling by the European Court of Justice last month that two trade deals between the EU and Morocco did not cover Western Sahara.

The European Commission will publish detailed reports on its negotiations with the United States to forge the world's biggest trade pact, EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said on Friday, responding to criticism that the talks have been shrouded in secrecy. If agreed, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would encompass a third of world trade, and proponents say it would deliver more than $100 billion of economic gains on both sides. But opponents in Europe have voiced concern that it could erode EU standards on food safety and the environment, and argue the negotiations have not been transparent. In a blog post, Malmstrom said one of her first decisions as trade commissioner when she took office last year had been to make the negotiations more open…

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Wednesday that damage to water quality must be considered when authorities approve river dredging to expand ports, in a ruling which could hinder expansion at the German ports of Bremen and Hamburg. The European Union's highest tribunal raised hurdles for approval of port dredging projects which could harm marine life, saying more consideration must be given to the potential damage to water quality and marine life. But it did not order…

The European Union re-imposed sanctions on an Iranian bank and 32 Iranian shipping companies on Wednesday, using new legal grounds, after the measures were struck down by a European court. The EU's second highest court annulled an EU asset freeze on Bank Tejarat and 40 Iranian shipping companies in January, finding fault with the legal grounds given by the EU. The EU, as it has done in other cases, responded by re-listing Bank Tejarat and 32 of the Iranian shipping firms using new legal grounds. Eight firms were not put back on the list published in the EU's Official Journal on Wednesday. The decision comes days after Iran and six major powers reached a framework agreement to end a dispute over Iran's nuclear activities which prompted the sanctions. Reporting by Adrian Croft

A legal attempt by Iran's main oil tanker firm NITC to stop the European Union from reimposing sanctions on it over its disputed nuclear program has failed in a London court, setting back Tehran's efforts to ease trade restrictions. Iran is engaged in nuclear talks with world powers as it tries to strike a final deal to lift the sanctions that have halved its oil exports to just over 1 million barrels per day since 2012 and hammered its economy. EU governments were due imminently to re-include NITC, a major carrier of Iran's oil, on a blacklist of people and entities targeted by the bloc's sanctions, High Court Judge Nicholas Green said on Monday.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has joined other maritime organisations in expressing concern over the decision to compensate convicted Somali pirates. These criminals have been responsible for taking hostage thousands of seafarers, who were subjected to unprovoked violence and sometimes torture. Some seafarers have also been murdered while carrying out their lawful business on the high seas. Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered France to pay thousands of euros to Somali pirates who had attacked French ships in 2008. The pirates were captured by French military on the Somali coast after they hijacked two French yachts in separate attacks in 2008.

"We respect the decision announced today by the Federal Administrative Court (FAC) in Leipzig on the deepening and widening of the navigation channel on the Lower and Outer Elbe. A final decision can only be taken when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has clarified questions still outstanding on the so-called prohibition of deterioration and desirability of improvement embodied in the European Water Framework Directive. These questions will be resolved by spring 2015 in connection with complaints against a deepening of the River Weser. "The FAC also emphasized, however, that while the environmental compatibility assessments in respect of the fauna/flora done for the planning approval for the deepening of the navigation channel of the Lower and Outer Elbe exhibit various shortcomings…

Austria will take the European Commission to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) if it approves Britain's plans for a 16 billion-pound ($26 billion) nuclear power plant, a spokesman for the chancellor said on Sunday. The deal to pay a guaranteed price for the power produced in the plant faces opposition from a quarter of EU policymakers, who want to overturn approval from the top European regulator. A vote is expected on Wednesday. The project, to be built by French utility EDF at Hinkley Point in southwest England, is crucial for Britain's plan to replace a fifth of its ageing nuclear power and coal plants over the coming decade while reducing carbon emissions. France sees it as a major export contract that will boost its nuclear industry.

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig today adjourned the proceedings by the BUND and NABU environmental associations against the plan approval concerning the dredging of the lower and outer stretches of the river Elbe until the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg has reached a decision regarding a pending referral of the interpretive ruling on the Water Framework Directive. The 7th division of the Federal Administrative Court, which is responsible for waterways law…

Iran's main oil tanker firm NITC will struggle for some time to call at European ports, get foreign insurance and overcome obstacles under western sanctions, even after a top court has annulled its blacklisted status in the European Union. An interim deal between Iran and world powers signed in November has provided the Islamic Republic with some sanctions relief, helping to boost oil sales. But continued restrictions on shipping and insurance have meant that a return to Tehran's pre-sanction export level of over 2 million barrels per day (bpd) is still some way off. The European court ruling "will not give them carte blanche to transport cargos…

Ukraine has lost at least $80 billion since Russia annexed its southern Crimea region and the price tag will be much higher when Kiev includes lost profits and the value of possible energy reserves in the Black Sea. Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said Kiev would press its case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights and could take individuals to court for military crimes and those against its territorial integrity. "Any state property located on the territory of Crimea is the property of Ukraine and Russia bears the full liability for the losses incurred by state companies, ministries and departments," Petrenko told a news conference. "Today the amount of such losses is 950 billion hryvnias.

Recent guidance handed down by the European Court of Justice which rules that off-spec fuel oil does not have to be handled as waste is a triumph of common sense which will be welcomed by all suppliers of fuel oils and bunkers. Shell Nederland and Shell Belgium were disputing a ruling by the Dutch environmental authorities (ILENT) which wanted to force them to handle a parcel of diesel oil rejected by a Belgian client as waste, when in fact Shell intended to up-blend the fuel to specification for selling on. Carel van Lynden, a partner with the shipping and offshore team at AKD in Rotterdam, says, “This is a good decision for bunker suppliers. This case reverses the very strict interpretation which ILENT had placed on off-spec bunkers.

Rotterdam based law firm AKD said a recent landmark decision of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg definitively puts its weight behind forum shopping to limit liability under the CMR Convention in carrier-friendly countries. This is a boon to the Dutch jurisdiction and specifically comes at the expense of the courts in Germany. The ruling had its origins in a dispute between cargo interests and carriers involving the theft of four consignments of Canon cameras during…

There has been a further twist in the long-running saga over the safety of shipping Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) into the Milford Haven waterway, reports the 'Western Telegraph'. Recently the European Commission issued a formal notice over ‘failure to comply with safety rules’. The EU’s Environmental Impact Assessment Directive requires such risks to be assessed and the findings to be made public. A formal notice is a preliminary step, which ultimately could lead to action before the European Court of Justice if a member state does not comply. It follows a long campaign to get risk assessments relating to the shipment of LNG released to the public.

INTERTANKO launches PhD Fellowship in Marine Pollution Law at World Maritime University. INTERTANKO is to fund a three-year PhD study into the emerging law and policy on criminal liability for marine pollution and the effects of this on seafarers. INTERTANKO will be working with the World Maritime University (WMU) and with the individual student chosen to undertake this important work. INTERTANKO’s Council has identified criminalisation as a high priority item for the INTERTANKO Work Plan.

The shipping industry remains firmly behind the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as the architect of change when it comes to regulating shipping’s CO2 emissions, according to Peter Hinchliffe, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS). While it is clearly in the interest of shipping to minimize its CO2 output by reducing fuel consumption, recently agreed amendments to Annex VI of IMO’s MARPOL Convention which – on a global basis – will make the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) mandatory for new ships, and the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) mandatory for existing vessels, were ‘absolutely’ what had been hoped for by ICS.

The European Commission taking Spain to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg over its failure to recover around 111 million euros in what it calls illegal state aid to its shipyards. The EU executive said in a statement it had asked Spain in early December to recover the aid, paid in the form of 18,451 billion pesetas in special tax credits in 1998 to the state-owned merchant shipyards grouped in holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI). "Despite reminders, Spain has not complied with the decision, which it was obliged to execute within two months. Faced with such a situation, the Commission is obliged to act," it said in a statement.

As maritime regulators in various countries prepare to implement the ISPS Code rigorously, with effect from next Thursday, analysts are watching shipping security developments closely. Recent reports from the International Chamber of Commerce, which publishes a weekly newsletter on global maritime piracy, indicate a spate of attacks over the last three weeks in Senegal, Cameroon, the Malacca Straits and Indonesia. Such attacks are nothing new: nor is the loss of life amongst ill-fated seafarers, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. July 1st also heralds the first deadline for the installation of Ship Security Alert Systems on board more than 40,000 of the world’s ocean-going cargo and passenger ships.

The European Commission (EC) issued a press release stating that it is proposing to streamline rules on protection in case of marine pollution. The 2005 Framework Decision was struck down in 2007 by the European Court of Justice. The new proposal will, if adopted, protect the marine environment through criminal law in a manner consistent with the court’s ruling. The EC also issued a series of Questions and Answers on this proposal. Source: HK Law

The European Commission (EC) summarized the opinion of the Advocate General in litigation involving the damages arising from the discharge of heavy fuel oil from the tanker ERIKA. A complaint seeking damages was filed by a French commune against the Total Group on the basis that it was involved in producing, selling, or carrying the heavy fuel oil without actually carrying it. The advocate general, in an advisory opinion to the European Court of Justice, stated that, in accordance with the Waste Framework Directive, the financial burden of the disposal operations should be on the persons who cause the waste, whether they are holders or producers of the waste.

On September 25, 2007, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg will hear oral arguments in the case brought by INTERTANKO and the industry coalition to examine the validity of the European Union (EU) Ship Source Pollution Directive. Members will recall that the case brought against the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Transport had originated in the Administrative Court of the English High Court. Judgment was granted in favour of the industry coalition in July 2006. The High Court had directed that the case be transferred to the ECJ as that Court has the sole power to rule on the validity of a piece of EU legislation. The Directive, which seeks to criminalise accidental pollution, has proved to be controversial from both the legal and practical standpoints.