WRITTEN QUESTION E-3625/02 by Paolo Costa (ELDR), Giovanni Procacci (ELDR), Luciano Caveri (ELDR),Francesco Rutelli (ELDR), Dirk Sterckx (ELDR), Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE),Gilles Savary (PSE), Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR), Marco Formentini (ELDR),Giovanni Fava (PSE), Massimo Carraro (PSE)and Helena Torres Marques (PSE) to the Council. Safety at sea.
Date: 2002-12-16
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU law, International Maritime Organisation, access to EU information, drafting of EU law, maritime safety, national implementing measure, oil pollution, parliamentary session, tanker, technical regulations, transport regulations

C 222 E/86

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

18.9.2003

(2003/C 222 E/100)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3584/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(13 December 2002)

Subject: The ‘ERIKA’ legislative packages and the US Oil Pollution Act of 1990

On what grounds did the Council, in the aftermath of the wreck of the ‘ERIKA’ tanker and even prior to
the successive disasters which have affected the Galician coast,
in the shape of the wrecks of the
‘Polycommander’, ‘Aegean Sea’, ‘Urquiola’ and ‘Casón’, fail to include within the ‘ERIKA’ legislative packages
the type of strict financial guarantee and safety requirements which are placed on shipowners and vessels
by the US Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (passed following the ‘Exxon Valdez’ disaster)?

(2003/C 222 E/101)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3587/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(13 December 2002)

Subject: EU disaster area status for the Galician coast following the wreck of the ‘Prestige’

In the wake of the wreck of the ‘Prestige’ and of the six similar accidents which have occurred in recent
years in Galicia (cid:1) which has thus become the area of the world most affected by such tragic accidents (cid:1)
and in view of the political causes or omissions underlying those accidents, does the Council intend to
declare the Galician coast a disaster area, channelling the financial and political resources required to
undertake the economic, social and economic recovery of Galicia?

(2003/C 222 E/102)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3589/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(13 December 2002)

Subject: Specific measures by the Council to prevent or tackle the consequences of maritime disasters in

the major sea corridor bordering the Galician coast

What specific measures have been taken by the Council to prevent or tackle the consequences of maritime
disasters in the major sea corridor that borders the Galician coast, in the wake of the successive tragic
disasters which have affected Galicia over recent years?

(2003/C 222 E/103)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3625/02

by Paolo Costa (ELDR), Giovanni Procacci (ELDR), Luciano Caveri (ELDR),
Francesco Rutelli (ELDR), Dirk Sterckx (ELDR), Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE),
Gilles Savary (PSE), Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR), Marco Formentini (ELDR),
Giovanni Fava (PSE), Massimo Carraro (PSE)
and Helena Torres Marques (PSE) to the Council

(16 December 2002)

Subject: Safety at sea

The regulatory and legislative measures adopted after the ERIKA disaster three years ago have not been
sufficient to prevent another, unprecedented, maritime disaster in the EU.

Although it had a single hull and was 26 years old, the oil tanker Prestige had not been inspected since
1999. In view of this latest accident, does the Council intend, at the European summit in mid-December,
to propose bringing forward the timetable laid down by the regulation on the accelerated phasing-in of
double-hull or equivalent design standards for single-hull oil tankers and to ban all single-hull oil and
chemical tankers from European coastal waters, in particular near the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts,
with immediate effect?

18.9.2003

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 222 E/87

When the ERIKA I and II packages were finalised, the Fifteen approved the principle of a political
commitment by the EU Member States to apply the measures they contained immediately, before the
directives were transposed. What means is the Council prepared to employ to ensure that this actually
happens?

It appears from initial enquiries that the Prestige had set off from Saint Petersburg and was bound for
Singapore. It is therefore not solely a European responsibility to ensure that the principles of maritime
safety are observed, and local action should not preclude global action. Is the Council
in favour of
convening an urgent meeting with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in order to put in place
the preconditions for legislation at world level?

What is the Council’s position with regard to a strategy modelled on ‘closer cooperation’ between some
Member States with regard to safety at sea? Would the Council be prepared to accept that a requirement
for double-hull vessels be immediately applicable in some particularly sensitive maritime areas, such as the
Mediterranean?

(2003/C 222 E/104)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3761/02

by Emmanouil Bakopoulos (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(23 December 2002)

Subject: Spanish proposal to the UN

Articles in the press report that Spain proposes to submit a proposal to the UN General Assembly under
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to amend the provisions governing safety on vessels
and the prevention of pollution of the sea. In particular, the Spanish proposal calls for a shorter phasing-
out period for single-hull tankers.

Has Spain put forward a similar point of view in the Council and, if so, does it reflect the unanimous view
of the Member States?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-3563/02, E-3581/02, E-3582/02, E-3583/02,
E-3584/02, E-3587/02, E-3589/02, E-3625/02 and E-3761/02

(5 and 6 May 2003)

The Council would refer the Honourable Members to the declaration made by the Presidency on behalf of
the Council on all the points raised in their questions during the plenary session of the European
Parliament in December 2002, and to its replies to Questions H-833/02, H-839/02, H-847/02 and H-871/
02 put by Messrs Josu Ortuondo Larrea, Manuel Medina Ortega, Camilo Nogueira Román and John
Cushnahan respectively at Question Time on 15 January 2003 in Strasbourg.

(2003/C 222 E/105)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3569/02

by Jonas Sjöstedt (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(12 December 2002)

Subject: Situation regarding unsafe nuclear reactors in the applicant countries

The Council’s working group on nuclear safety is in the process of assessing the safety of nuclear plants in
the applicant countries. As late as the summer of 2001, this working group published a list of several
safety problems at the nuclear plants at Temelin in the Czech Republic and Paks in Hungary, for example.