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EU agrees to ban single-hulled tankers
Guardian Unlimited
27th March 2003
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union governments agreed Thursday to ban all single-hulled tankers by 2010 in an attempt to reduce the risk of spills like the one that befouled the coast of northwestern Spain last year.
The ban would be phased in, with a ban on single-hulled tankers carrying heavy crude oil taking effect in July if approved by the European Parliament.
The ban will apply to all boats using EU ports and to all vessels flying European flags.
The largest ships will be banned starting in 2005.
``This is a spectacular step forward ... which allows the full ban in EU waters of the most dangerous tankers,'' EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said.
Transport ministers from the 15 EU nations also agreed to ban all single-hulled tankers over 23 years old.
The EU restrictions are similar to those imposed by the United States in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.
The EU will press the 162-nation International Maritime Organization to make the ban global when it meets in London in July.
European nations moved to introduce tighter rules after the tanker Prestige sank in November off Spain's Atlantic coast, pouring an estimated 10 million gallons of toxic, viscous fuel oil into the sea, contaminating beaches from Portugal and to southwest France.
In December, EU governments agreed to ban single-hulled ships like the Prestige from carrying heavy crude, but that agreement was not legally binding and application has been patchy.
The new agreement, if approved by the European Parliament, would be binding on the 15 EU nations.
At a request from Greece, an exception will be made for small tankers up to 5,000 tons which transport fuel to Greek islands. Their operators will have until 2008 to replace the single-hulled boats.
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