WRITTEN QUESTION E-1265/03 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council. Outcome of the Transport Council's decision of December 2002 on the conclusion of agreements by the States with their respective industries.
Date: 2003-04-03
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU law, equal treatment, international convention, maritime safety, maritime transport, oil pollution, prevention of pollution, tanker, technical regulations, transport company

21.11.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 280 E/123

a two-pronged approach, consisting in a return to strict channelling involving liability for others than the
registered owner and an increase of the owners’ financial obligations concerning the financing of the
proposed supplementary oil pollution compensation fund. These proposals will now form part of the
future debates of the Working Group. Its next meeting is scheduled to take place in October 2003.

(2003/C 280 E/141)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1265/03

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

(3 April 2003)

Subject: Outcome of the Transport Council’s decision of December 2002 on the conclusion of agreements

by the States with their respective industries

A decision was taken at the Transport Council of December 2002 on the conclusion of agreements by the
States with their respective industries to ensure quality shipping and ban the transport of heavy fuel oil in
single-hull tankers.

What has been the outcome of this decision? What agreements have been entered into in the various
States with their industries?

Reply

(22 July 2003)

As the Honourable Member of the European Parliament rightly noted, the Council conclusions on ships’
safety and pollution prevention, adopted on 6 December 2002 in response to the Prestige accident, urged
Member States to enter into agreements with their respective industries to ensure quality shipping and
eliminate older single hulled vessels transporting the heavy grades of oil and invited the Commission to
develop a model agreement to this end.

The Commission, however, deemed it more appropriate to include the ban of transport of heavy grades of
oil in single hull tankers into its proposal for an amendment of Regulation 417/2002 on the accelerated
phasing in of double hull or equivalent design requirements for single hull oil tankers, presented to the
European Parliament and the Council on 20 December 2002, with a view to ensuring a uniform
implementation throughout the Community.

The Council has followed the Commission’s reasoning on the matter and agreed, at its meeting on
27 March 2003, a general approach on this proposal, including a ban on transport of heavy grades of oil
in single hull tankers.

As indicated by the Commission in its Communication ‘Report to the European Council on action to deal
with the effects of the Prestige disaster’, of 5 March 2003, it seems that industry shares the view that
Community legislation is the most appropriate means to ensure equal treatment between competing
companies.

(2003/C 280 E/142)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1277/03

by Dana Scallon (PPE-DE) to the Council

(4 April 2003)

Subject: Uniates in Romania

On 7 February 2002, after having gained legal title in the courts, the Greek Catholic minority (also called
Eastern Rite Catholic, or Uniates) was able to to recover their Church of Ocna Mures, Transylvania,
Romania.

A few weeks later, on 16 March 2002, they informed me that they were driven out of their church by a
mob led by three Orthodox priests, aided and abetted by the local police.