The European Parliament will next week call for stricter environmental and social rules to apply when EU ships are scrapped in Asia to prevent risk to people and the environment. Voting in the Strasbourg plenary session on a report drafted by Hans Blokland (Netherlands, Independence & Democracy), MEPs are set to call for the EU to act on the environmentally damaging practices and dangerous working conditions under which cargo ships are dismantled, primarily in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The report, which the Environment Committee has already cleared and is Parliament's response to the European Commission's green paper on better ship dismantling, will call on the Commission to set up and monitor a register of 'pre-waste ships', as well as to develop a list of preferred ship recycling facilities. The report points out that ship owners use a loophole that allows vessels to be classified both as a waste and a ship under different regulations, and thereby get around an international ban on exports of hazardous waste in the Basel Convention. The report criticises the lack of political will to close the loopholes.
展开▼
