Council conclusions of 22 December 2003 — A European Union strategy to reduce atmospheric emissions from seagoing ships
Date: 2003-12-22
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: air quality, reduction of gas emissions, vessel

13.1.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 8/3

COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS

of 22 December 2003

A European Union strategy to reduce atmospheric emissions from seagoing ships

(2004/C 8/03)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION:

1. RECOGNISING that atmospheric pollution at local, regional
and global levels represents one of the major threats to
human health and the environment;

2. RECOGNISING ALSO that atmospheric emissions

from
seagoing ships contribute to acidification, eutrophication,
the formation of
tropospheric ozone and particulate
matter, as well as to global climate change and to the
depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, and NOTING
that international and EU legislation does not cover this
matter sufficiently;

3. RECALLING that in the context of a new Protocol to the
MARPOL Convention 73/78, the International Maritime
Organisation adopted in 1997 an annex (Annex VI)
containing regulations to reduce air pollution from ships;

4. RECALLING that the Kyoto Protocol states that Parties shall
emissions of
International

pursue
reduction of
greenhouse gases working through the
Maritime Organisation (IMO);

limitation or

the

5. RECALLING the Clean Air for Europe Programme, CAFE,
which was established in order to elaborate a thematic
strategy on major air pollution sources;

in particular,

6. RECALLING the objectives of the 6th Environment Action
Programme, and,
the achievement of air
quality levels not dangerous for human health and the
environment and the reduction of GHG emissions in the
transport sector,
in particular by identifying and under-
taking specific actions for marine shipping if no such
action is agreed within the International Maritime Organi-
sation by 2003;

8. CONSIDERING that Directives 1999/30/EC and 2002/3/EC
require that plans or programmes should be developed to
ensure compliance with limit values in ambient air for
SO2, NO2, PM10 and ozone by the date or dates laid
down therein;

for

9. CONSIDERING that Directive 2001/81/EC on national
emission ceilings
certain atmospheric pollutants
commits the Commission to specify a programme of
actions which could be
and
community level as appropriate to reduce emissions
from the international maritime traffic;

international

taken at

10. WELCOMES the Commission proposal for a Strategy to
reduce atmospheric emissions from seagoing ships in
order to protect human health and the environment and
UNDERLINES that the Strategy has to be the driving force
for international, regional and local long-term policies in
this field;

11. UNDERLINES the importance of promoting international
actions to effectively address the environmental problems
caused by emissions from seagoing ships of all flags on a
global scale; therefore BELIEVES that international solutions
should be pursued working closely with key shipping
nations at IMO and that, in this context, the adoption of
Annex VI to the MARPOL Convention represents a key
step and URGES the EU Member States which have not yet
ratified this important international instrument to do so as
soon as possible to allow its entering into force;

12. CONSIDERS

it

is

to

that

essential

the
reinforce
IMO
consideration of EU Member States' positions at
in the revision
negotiations in particular to PROMOTE,
IMO MARPOL Convention, the
phase of Annex VI of
adoption of more ambitious measures as
regards a
tighter global sulphur cap for heavy fuel oils burned by
ships and tighter nitrogen dioxide emission standards for
these engines used in ships;

7. NOTES that the Commission is actively pursuing its work
on measures to promote modal shift, taking into account
their relevant impacts, and REQUESTS that the environ-
mental performance of all modes of transport is improved;

13. CALLS FOR THE PROMOTION, in the revision phase of the
IMO SOLAS Convention on the safety of life at sea, of the
decommissioning before 2008 of halon fire fighting
systems on board ships built before 1994 and TAKES
NOTE OF the Commission's aim to study the use of
halons in existing cargo ships operating in EU waters;

C 8/4

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

13.1.2004

14. SUPPORTS the development of an IMO Strategy to limit
greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from shipping including
a working plan towards 2005; UNDERLINES the need to
improve the methodologies for estimating and reporting
emissions from ships, and URGES the Member States and
the Commission to work together at IMO to ensure that
methodologies are improved and that
the IMO GHG
strategy is concrete and ambitious; UNDERLINES the
importance of
cooperation between UNFCC
closer
experts, IMO experts and IPCC experts;

15. RECOGNISES that progress within IMO depends on the
IMO member states and therefore URGES the
input of
EU Member States
to submit concrete proposals on
tighter NOx standards under MARPOL Annex VI and on
the different aspects of the IMO GHG Strategy.

reduction of NOx
transportation;

16. RECOGNISES the need to investigate specific EU actions
to the
with respect
and GHG
emissions
by marine
the
INVITES
Commission to consider a proposal
tighter NOx
standards by the end of 2006 if IMO has not made any
proposals for tighter standards by that date; and also
INVITES the Commission to report on possible actions on
ship GHG in 2005;

for

18. UNDERLINES the need to promote the development and use
of emissions abatement technologies and the use of market
based instruments that can substantially contribute to the
the
reduction of
Commission to continue work in these respects and to
develop corresponding proposals if appropriate;

emissions and therefore REQUESTS

19. STRESSES ALSO the need to consider the geographical scale
of air pollution problem linked to seagoing ships in ident-
ifying the most appropriate measures to be adopted at an
appropriate level taking fully into account the subsidiarity
and proportionality principle;

20. RECALLING that Community legislation already in force on
the sulphur content in marine fuels covers only gas oils,
RECOGNISES the need to update the current legislation on
sulphur content in liquid fuels to include marine fuels with
the aim of addressing EU acidification and air quality
problems in a cost-effective way; WELCOMES the work
European
underway with
the
Parliament
the
Commission proposal
to amend Directive 1999/32 as
regards the sulphur content of marine fuels and AGREES
to expedite progress on this issue;

on

international

seagoing ships

level and that,

the contribution of

17. RECOGNISES that not all the environmental problems are
properly addressed at
in
to the
particular,
concentration of particulate matter and of ozone and its
precursors in ambient air needs further consideration and
therefore INVITES the Commission to include these issues
in the framework of the CAFE Programme ensuring that
all emission sources are considered through an integrated
evaluation model
the costs and
benefits of the possible reduction measures;

taking into account

cost-effectiveness of measures

21. AGREES with the Commission proposal to further evaluate
the
to regulate VOC
emissions from loading ships in comparison to measures
already mandatory for
through
Directive 94/63/EC (20 December 1994);

loading inland ships

22. WELCOMES the decision to involve acceding and candidate
country representatives in consultations on the Strategy,
including on the parallel proposal
to amend Directive
1999/32/EC on the sulphur content of marine fuels.