the European Parliament has rejected the regulations proposal on the recycling of the ships



At least for the moment the marine-harbour industry can breathe a sigh of relief. Today in fact, with 299 favorable ballots, 292 contrarys and 21 abstentions, that previews the imposition of a tax at the expense of all the ships that scale the ports EU with the objective to retrieve the resources to finance in order to economically support sustainable procedures for the demolition, the dismantling and the money laundering of the ships that are approved of in recent days by the Commission for the atmosphere of the assembly parliamentarian of Strasbourg ( on March 23, 2012, 14 and 26 March, 15 April 2013).

The plenary assembly, even though for a fistful of ballots, has not received the proposal deliberated from the Commission for the atmosphere (reporter Carl Schlyter), but - with an amendment approved of with 499 favorable ballots, 50 contrarys and 55 abstentions - it has asked the EU commission to manage within the end of a 2015 legislative proposal based on a system of incentives in order to facilitate a recycling of the ships sure and effective. The approval of the amendment proposal gives sent to Schlyter to negotiate with the European Council an agreement in first reading, being started the negotiations the next month.

For Carl Schlyter, however, more than than an average victory, draft of a full defeat: "if the European Parliament has voted in order to place end to the fact that the demolition of the European ships is carried out with unconcern in the Developing countries in danger conditions - is regretful Schlyter - this is compromise from the lacked financial adoption of a support mechanism. It is a lot frustrating - it has denounced europarlamentare - than a risked majority it has yielded to an action of absolutely deceptive lobby by the marine field, that it tries to stave off to own responsibilities, and has rejected the proposed mechanism financial that it would have returned the sure recycling of the ships competitive".

If for Schlyter the today's pronunciamento of the European Parliament represents a smacco, for the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) it is a success: "we are pleased for the outcome of the ballot", the general secretary of the association of the European ports has declared, Patrick Verhoeven. "We comprise the necessity to create an incentive so that the shipowners opt for a sustainable recycling - it has added Verhoeven - but the side effects of the tax on the competitiveness of the ports of the European Union would have been many negatives in terms of loss of traffic, change of the programming of the ports of call of the ships and of modal transfer, not to mention the bureaucracy that this would have involved. Giving the task to the Commission to create a system based on incentives - he has found the representative of the ESPO - there will be the time to work to an adapted picture, that he could harmonize the requirement to create sustainable conditions for the recycling of the ships in the respect of the international norms with the competitiveness of the European ports".