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EU ship recycling proposal dubbed ‘illegal’

Europe – In Europe, the recently-introduced Commission Proposal on ship recycling includes serious ‘€˜loopholes and legal contradictions’€™, NGO Shipbreaking Platform Executive Director Patrizia Heidegger has warned EU member states in an open letter. Her main concern is that, once enforced, this would ‘€˜unilaterally remove’€™ end-of-life ships from the EU’€™s implementation of the Basel Convention.

The Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling is slated to be discussed during the environment ministers’€™ upcoming meeting on October 25. Mrs Heidegger hopes that bringing the regulatory breach to light will prevent ‘€˜the illegal exercise of removing ships from Basel application’€™, hailing the latter as a ‘€˜rightfully ratified’€™ convention on hazardous waste shipments.

In the open letter, the NGO Executive Director states: ‘€˜Ever since its adoption in 1989, the EU has been a champion of the Basel Convention. Since 1994, the EU has been a champion of the Basel ban on the export of hazardous waste to developing countries.’€™ Noting that it was the EU that had ‘€˜pushed the decision’€™ asserting that a ship could be a ship and a waste at the same time, Mrs Heidegger adds: ‘€˜This proposal is not legally possible. It does not yet appear that the Commission understands the gravity of this illegal act.’€™

According to the NGO, the Commission is ‘€˜conveniently ignoring’€™ the massive and sufficient capacity for green recycling in Europe, Mexico, Turkey, Canada and the USA. ‘€˜Secondly, both regimes can operate simultaneously and will have to do so in any event, due to the fact that Hong Kong does not, for example, cover government-owned ships,’€™ Mrs Heidegger writes.

The ‘€˜known loopholes’€™ wherein ship-owners can circumvent Basel rules can be closed ‘€˜with further effort’€™, says the NGO. Therefore, European Commission decision-makers are urged not to support the proposal in its present form, but rather to ‘€˜ensure that it is amended to remain in conformity with the binding legal provisions’€™ of the Basel Convention.

To read the entire open letter, visit:  www.bit.ly/VJ6GC4

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