WRITTEN QUESTION E-0715/03

by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Council

(11 March 2003)

Subject: Prestige: stronger legal classification of environmental crime and maritime pollution

The Prestige disaster calls for a forthright response in order to prevent further such disasters. Various organisations are therefore calling for much stronger criminal classification of environmental crime and maritime pollution.

The Spanish press (La Voz de Galicia of 4 February 2003, p. 6) has reported a meeting of the Spanish, Italian and French Ministers of Justice in which they agreed to support the EU Council's initiatives and step up the criminal prosecution of those involved in polluting European coasts.

What measures is the Council debating or going to take in this connection?

Reply

(29 September 2003)

In response to the accident of the oil tanker Prestige, the Council (Transport, Telecommunications, Energy) adopted on 6 December 2002 Council conclusions on ships' safety and pollution prevention. On that occasion, the Council, referring to the Commission Communication of 3 December 2002 on improving safety at sea in response to the Prestige accident, welcomed the intention of the Commission to present a proposal to ensure that any person who has caused or contributed to a pollution incident through grossly negligent behaviour should be subject to appropriate sanctions. The European Council held in Copenhagen on 12/13 December 2002 also welcomed the Commission's intention of examining the need for further specific measures, among them measures relating to liability and corresponding sanctions, to confront the consequences deriving from the wreck of the Prestige. The Council recently received a Commission proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on ship-source pollution and on the introduction of sanctions, including criminal sanctions, for pollution offences. Furthermore, on 27 January 2003 the Council adopted a Framework Decision on the protection of the environment through criminal law. The Framework Decision makes provision for Member States to establish wide-ranging jurisdiction with respect to environmental offences in such a way as to avoid physical or legal persons escaping prosecution by the simple fact that the offence was not committed in their territory.

In the proposal for a Directive which it submitted to the Council in March, the Commission refers to two main objectives:

- to incorporate into Community legislation the international discharge rules on ship-source pollution and regulate the enforcement of those rules in detail;

- to establish that violations of the discharge rules are criminal offences and provide guidelines on the penalties to be awarded.

Following the Commission's oral presentation of the proposal to the Council (Telecommunications, Transport and Energy) on 27 March 2003, the Council has now begun a technical examination of the proposal, thereby responding to the call from the European Council held in Brussels on 20/21 March 2003 to adopt before the end of 2003 a system of sanctions, including criminal sanctions for pollution offences on the appropriate legal basis. Furthermore, the Commission recently presented a proposal for a Council Framework Decision to strengthen the criminal-law framework for the enforcement of the law against ship-source pollution.

The Honourable Member can therefore be assured that the sinking of the single-hull oil tanker Prestige off the coast of Galicia on 19 November 2002 engaged European institutions in a combined effort to combat the consequences of the massive pollution caused by such a terrible accident.

Furthermore, at its meeting on 4 March 2003 and taking into account reports by the Commission, Spain and France, the Environment Council adopted conclusions on a thematic strategy to protect and conserve the marine environment and, in particular, it invited the Commission to include further measures, if necessary, in relation to the safety of maritime transport in order to protect the marine environment and consider related issues of liability and, if appropriate, sanctions.