WRITTEN QUESTION P-0371/03

by Reino Paasilinna (PSE) to the Commission

(7 February 2003)

Subject: Movements of the tanker Stemnitsa in the frozen waters of the Gulf of Finland

Despite repeated requests and alarming warnings from the Finnish authorities, the Stemnitsa, a Greek tanker, is sailing in the Gulf of Finland to transport oil. The ship is big for a narrow waterway, 274 metres long, and lightly reinforced for ice only at the fore-end. The ice conditions in the Gulf of Finland are at present exceptionally difficult. A large, fragile ship could thus break up on the expanses of pack ice, and the consequences would be disastrous. The Finnish shipping authorities believe that the Stemnitsa's movements constitute a serious environmental hazard in the Baltic Sea, which is extremely vulnerable. This applies especially when the ship is carrying oil. Russia, however, does not consider the ship unseaworthy in frozen waters, and negotiations at authority and ministerial level have failed to resolve the problem.

The Stemnitsa is now heading for the Russian oil port of Koivisto (Primorsk), where it is supposed to pick up a cargo of over 100 000 tonnes of crude oil. The one ice-breaker that is helping the ship to advance is insufficient to keep the ice out of its path. Indeed, the ship has already been ice bound several times, and the ice conditions in the Gulf of Finland, a waterway full of rocks, have continued to become more difficult all the while. Dozens of other ships bound for Russian ports are already trapped in the ice in different parts of the Gulf of Finland.

What will the Commission do to avert a serious environmental threat in the Union's territorial waters and what will it do about the constant indifference of the Russian authorities?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(13 March 2003)

The Commission is aware of the difficulties of navigating in the Gulf of Finland and shares the anxieties of the Finnish authorities regarding the risks associated with the transport of gas and oil under these conditions. It has drawn attention on a number of occasions to the urgent need to take all appropriate harmonised measures to prevent new disasters in the inland waterways of the Union.

On 3 December 2002, in the aftermath of the accident involving the oil tanker Prestige, the Commission published a communication aimed at improving maritime safety(1), followed by unanimous far-reaching Council conclusions.

As regards the passage through international waters close to Member State coastlines of vessels carrying potentially dangerous cargoes, the Commission feels that the international law of the sea needs to be amended so as to ensure a better balance between freedom of movement and the interests of the coastal States which need to be in a position to protect their coasts against possible risks.

Against this background, the Commission has called on all countries that are neighbours of the Union, as well as other partners and international institutions such as the United Nations, to take firmer steps to improve the international legal arrangements governing pollution caused by ships. It has also called on all Member States to play their part in actively promoting, within the United Nations, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the other competent bodies, the adaptation of the provisions of the law of the sea to the new requirements of maritime safety in the 21st century.

At the same time, the Commission is currently examining, in those areas for which it is responsible and in conjunction with the Russian authorities, matters relating to the conditions governing the transport of gas and oil in the Baltic Sea.

(1) COM(2002) 681 final.