EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO MAKE MARINE POLLUTION A CRIMINAL OFFENSE

EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO MAKE MARINE POLLUTION A CRIMINAL OFFENSE    Increasing the ante in its battle against marine pollution, the European Commission announced on Wednesday a directive that will hold those responsible for marine pollution subject to criminal sanctions.
   The proposed directive establishes that marine pollution by ships is a criminal offense, and threatens the most serious offenders with jail sentences.
   “Sanctions will be applicable to any person — including the master, the owner, the operator and the charterer of a ship and the classification society — who has been found to have caused or contributed to illegal pollution intentionally or by means of gross negligence,” the EC said.
   The Brussels-based body said that its directive responds to calls by the European councils of ministers last December for further specific measures relating to liability and corresponding sanctions, for strengthened protection of the environment and for criminal sanctions against grossly negligent behavior leading to marine pollution by ships.
   “A measure of this type is particularly important in shipping”, said Loyola de Palacio, the European Commission’s vice-president responsible for transport and energy policy. “The existing civil liability regimes for pollution by ships do not provide sufficient financial disincentives for shipowners and others involved in the transport of dangerous cargoes by sea to behave in the most responsible way,” she said.
   Several months after the oil spill of the tanker “Prestige” off the Spanish coast, the EC cited statistics showing that there were 1,638 oil slicks in the Mediterranean in 1999, and 390 in the Baltic Sea in 2001 and 596 in the North Sea also in 2001.
   The EC said that its proposal is a further effort “to try to stop the thousands of deliberate discharges of waste and cargo residues from ships at sea around Europe.”
   The directive provides rules for the discharge of polluting substances, including oil and chemicals, and makes any violation of those rules illegal in European Union waters. In addition, it prohibits pollution on the high seas, irrespective of the flag of the ship.
   De Palacio said that the proposed directive “will go a long way in establishing a culture of responsible shipping in EU waters and beyond.” The newly created European Maritime Safety Agency will assist the EC and member states in establishing the information system required to effectively implement the directive.
   The EC directive is the latest attempt by European policy-makers to impose regional legislation on shipping that deviates from the international conventions of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency.