EU trio move to combat slick skippers

Greece, Cyprus and Malta blocked EU proposals today to set minimum punishments for skippers and shipping companies responsible for oil slicks.

At a meeting of European justice ministers in Luxembourg, the three Mediterranean countries argued the rules would penalise their merchant fleets by going further than international agreements applicable to competitors from outside the EU.

The EU rules set a series of minimum punishments of up to 10 years imprisonment and fines of €1.4m for major pollution resulting from deliberate acts or gross negligence.

Failure to agree in Luxembourg means the issue may be taken up at next week’s EU summit in Brussels, diplomats said.

Greece, Malta and Cyprus also want to revise the package to impose a ceiling on the liability that shipping companies can face if there is a pollution disaster. Without that, they say, it will become impossible for shippers to get insurance cover.

They have received little support from other nations pushing for tougher rules to prevent repeats of the 2002 Prestige disaster in north-western Spain. The stricken tanker spilled millions of gallons of oil into the sea contaminating beaches from Portugal to south-west France.