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Jacques Chirac News

01 Nov 2000

Tanker Not An Environmental Disaster Yet

Environmental disaster has been averted for now but France is taking no risks after a tanker carrying thousands of tons of toxic chemicals sank off the Normandy coast, Reuters reported President Jacques Chirac as saying. Visiting an emergency operations center in Cherbourg, northwestern France, Chirac said information was still being gathered on how best to recover the chemicals that officials said were already leaking from the Italian tanker Ievoli Sun, which sank in the English Channel on Tuesday. "It's escaping in bursts," Cherbourg maritime captain Jean-Francois Choquart said. "It has to be styrene that has escaped from a forward storage tank…

06 Jan 2003

EC Vows to Toughen Maritime Safety

The European Commission (EC) has adopted rules prohibiting transport of heavy fuel in single hull tankers and setting an earlier date for phase-out of single hull tankers. Further work is planned with regard to clarification of legal responsibility for maritime accidents. On January 2, French President Jacques Chirac and Commission President Romano Prodi discussed the issue of maritime safety. This followed the collision of the Turkish tanker Vicky with a sunken carrier off the French coast on Wednesday. The tanker was transporting 70,000 tons of highly flammable kerosene. Against the backdrop of this accident and the ongoing oil pollution caused by the accident of the tanker "Prestige" off the Spanish coast last November…

06 Aug 2001

European Vision Leaves Vacationers Stranded in Genoa

Vacationers who booked a cruise on the luxury liner used by world leaders during last month's G8 summit were disappointed when the ship broke down at the weekend. European Vision had to stop in Genoa on Sunday to allow 1,500 passengers to disembark after an engine problem, a spokeswoman for Festival Cruises said. The 58,600-ton floating luxury resort, which includes Turkish baths, was home for two nights to world leaders such as French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the Group of Eight summit last month. Passengers, who were on a seven-day cruise, were reimbursed and offered a 50 percent discount on future cruises with the company.

20 Jan 2000

Chirac Vows To Make Polluters Pay More

French President Jacques Chirac vowed to push for international laws forcing polluters to pay more for damage caused by oil slicks like one that smeared France's Atlantic shoreline last month. Speaking to youths shoveling globs of fuel oil that washed up near the resort of Le Croisic, Chirac said he wanted to see harsher accident fines for ship charterers and owners.

28 Jan 2000

TotalFina Tightens Tanker Regulations After Erika Spill

Oil giant TotalFina, which chartered the ill-fated oil tanker Erika, tightened its policy on chartering older tankers. However, company officials stressed that a new age limit on large ships, which would not have stopped it chartering the mid-sized Erika, needed to be backed up by tougher international maritime standards and greater transparency of safety checks. "We still need a global initiative and we are still calling for tighter controls and for charterers to have more access to documents (on seaworthiness checks)," TotalFina spokeswoman Isabelle Galldraud said. The company is cutting to 20 years from 25 the upper age limit on chartered vessels of 80,000 deadweight tons and above, while keeping it at 25 years for smaller ships.