WRITTEN QUESTION E-0414/03 by Heidi Hautala (Verts/ALE) to the Council. Classification of the Stemnitsa, an oil tanker operating in the Baltic, as an ice-class vessel.
Date: 2003-02-17
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Baltic Sea, EU environmental policy, International Maritime Organisation, Russia, environmental risk prevention, maritime safety, tanker, the EU's international role

18.9.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 222 E/199

(2003/C 222 E/227)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0414/03

by Heidi Hautala (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(17 February 2003)

Subject: Classification of the Stemnitsa, an oil tanker operating in the Baltic, as an ice-class vessel

The Stemnitsa, an oil tanker sailing under the Greek flag and operated by the Greek shipping line Minerva
Maríne, has repeatedly been plying the Baltic this winter under exceptionally difficult ice conditions.
The ship carries 100 000 tonnes of Russian crude oil at a time, which is loaded on at the new Primorsk oil
terminal in Russia, towards the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland. It has been rated by the American
Bureau of Shipping as an ice-class vessel, but Finnish experts do not consider this classification sufficient
for the particularly gruelling ice conditions in the Gulf of Finland. Primarily on account of Russia’s
projected new oil terminals at Primorsk and Vysotksk, it is estimated that oil shipments through the Baltic
will double every five years, increasing from the present 40 million tonnes to 160 million tonnes by 2010.
From the ecological point of view the Gulf of Finland is a very vulnerable sea area and in social and
economic terms an important shipping lane. The Finnish authorities have not found ways to prevent the
Stemnitsa and other high-risk vessels from operating in the international waters of the Baltic.

In an interview with the Finnish News Agency on 4 February the newly appointed Executive Director of
the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Willem de Ruiter, said that the EU had no reason to
intervene in the Stemnitsa’s operations and was powerless to act. However, according to its own home
page, the agency’s task is to ‘contribute to the enhancement of the overall maritime safety system in the
Community in order to reduce the risk of maritime accidents, marine pollution from ships and the loss of
human lives at sea’. Under the regulation establishing EMSA the agency will be called upon to ‘assist the
in the preparatory works for updating and developing Community
Commission, where appropriate,
legislation in the field of maritime safety and prevention of pollution by ships, in particular in line with the
development of international legislation in that field’.

The Commission is a member of the Baltic Maríne Environment Protection Commission (Helcom) and
could exert considerable influence with a view to securing agreement at the next Helcom Environment
Ministers’ meeting in summer 2003 on a proposal to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that
the Baltic be declared a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) and that vessels sailing there should meet
special requirements regarding ice pressure resistance and a double-hull structure. The Commission’s
prospects for bringing its influence to bear in Helcom and the IMO are all the greater because all the
coastal states bar Russia will soon belong to the EU.

1. Will the Council back an initiative addressed to the IMO along the lines described above when the
Environment Ministers of Helcom member countries meet in the summer?

Does the Council consider Mr de Ruiter’s interview, as summarised above, to be in keeping with the

2.
regulation establishing the European Maritime Safety Agency?

Reply

(13 May 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. Among other
measures, the Council urged Member States with common interests in sensitive sea areas to identify and
formulate coordinated proposals for the areas to be protected as ‘Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas’ by the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO). In a similar way, it urged the IMO to develop the use of the
instrument of designating ‘Sensitive Sea Areas’
(PSSA).
An initiative by the Member States concerned, as outlined by the honourable Parliamentarian, on the
occasion of the forthcoming meeting of the Helcom Environment Ministers would therefore be fully in line
with the position of the Council.

(SSA) and ‘Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas’

C 222 E/200

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

18.9.2003

in the Baltic Sea in particular,

the Council conclusions noted the
As regards the transport of oil
Commission’s intention to take the necessary steps to ensure the participation of the adhesion countries
and other neighbouring countries, including Russia, in an agreement that heavy grades of oil should only
be transported in double-hull
for the
Commission’s efforts to investigate the potential for technical cooperation programmes to assist the
in their efforts to increase
neighbouring countries, among which Russia was particularly mentioned,
maritime safety and pollution prevention.

the Council expressed its support

In general

tankers.

terms,

In addition, on 9 December 2002 the Council
in the Council conclusions on the
Environmental disaster caused by the accident of the ‘Prestige’ agreed on the need to further strengthening
and improving the existing co-operation between the conventions for the protection of the marine
environment, such as Helcom. It also expressed the necessity to reinvigorate the environmental activities of
IMO aiming at reinforcing maritime safety and the prevention of pollution by tankers, and urged Member
States to play an active and coordinated role at the meeting of the Maríne Environment Protection
Committee (MEPC) of the IMO in July 2003.

(Environment)

As regards the interview of the Finnish News Agency with the appointed Executive Director of the
European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA),
it is not within the Council’s competence to evaluate his
declarations.

(2003/C 222 E/228)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0416/03

by Stavros Xarchakos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Historical objects that belonged to André Breton

(17 February 2003)

According to reports in the Greek press, the family of André Breton, the extremely important poet who
published the ‘First Manifesto of Surrealism’, has decided to auction off the objects from the apartment
where he lived until his death. The family has taken this decision following unsuccessful negotiations with
the French Government to turn the apartment into a museum.

The Breton collection includes books (many signed by Trotsky and Freud), correspondence, pictures by
surrealists such as Miró and Magritte, a huge number of photographs, which are considered by experts to
be unique documents in the history of surrealism, and hundreds of other objects. In total, there are 5 500
objects, with a value estimated at between EUR 30 million and EUR 40 million. André Breton is the man
who gave common European culture a different dimension. His work changed the status quo of the whole
spectrum of the arts, and is a highly significant reference point not only for French culture but for
European culture as a whole.

What does the Commission intend to do to protect the extremely important cultural estate of the great
European surrealist? How does it view the idea of buying the objects and placing them in some special
location, or even promoting the idea of creating a museum, which would in addition constitute yet
another element in a common European cultural identity?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(13 March 2003)

The Commission would refer
Mr Borghezio (1)

(1) OJ C 137 E, 12.6.2003, p. 190.

the Honourable Member

to its answer

to written P-3289/02 by