News in English

EU: Proposed Ship Recycling Fund foundered

In the Plenary of the EU Parliament, on 18th April, a proposal by the Environment Committee (ENVI) of the European Parliament for the creation of a recycling fund/guarantee system to "eliminate beaching and environmentally unfriendly recycling on top of the 2009 Hong Kong Convention (HKC)", was narrowly defeated. Although it was unlikely that the Member States would accept the creation of such a fund/guaranty system, in a debate with the Commission and the EU, appropriate lobbying actions were taken by all the maritime sector's associations to ensure the defeat of the proposal in the European Parliament. However the Plenary did adopt an amended proposal, which invites the Commission to revisit the issue by the end of 2015 with a new legislative proposal for an incentive-based system that would facilitate safe and sound ship recycling.

The rapporteur, Karl Schlyter, also received a mandate to negotiate with the Council on the basis of the amended proposal as adopted (i.e. without the proposal to introduce a levy on all ships calling at EU ports) in order to come to an agreement at first reading. The compromise text contains several amendments, which bring it further in line with the 2009 Hong Kong Convention requirements and can therefore be supported to a broad extent.