ESC CRITICIZES EC PROPOSAL ON MARITIME OIL POLLUTION

ESC CRITICIZES EC PROPOSAL ON MARITIME OIL POLLUTION    The European Shippers’ Council has criticized the proposed European legislation on maritime safety, saying that it fails to introduce sufficient financial liability in the case of maritime pollution.
   Responding to a second set of European Community measures on maritime safety following the sinking of the oil tanker Erika, the ESC expressed its concern that the proposed introduction of a European third tier fund, entirely financed by oil receivers, will fail in preventing future serious maritime incidents. The shipper’s organization said that the proposed European legislation would “continue to allow shipowners to operate substandard vessels in European waters.”
   Chris Welsh, secretary general of the ESC, said that the current EC proposals perpetuate the faults of the present international conventions.
   The ESC called for new laws that would be similar to the U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 comprising of both financial liability and a compensation system in the case of maritime pollution.
   ESC recommended that the European Commission adopt a “U.S. style approach,” forbidding vessels access to European ports unless they can demonstrate that they have cover corresponding to the environmental risks posed by the cargoes they carry.
   “The Commission should enforce these arrangements by introducing at the European level financial fitness conditions through a Certificate of Financial Responsibility imposed on charterers and shipowners before they can operate in EU waters,” the ESC said.