Oil disaster vindicates demands for increased safety, says commissioner
The Prestige split in two and sank on Tuesday off Galicia, northwest Spain, spewing thousands of tonnes of oil into the sea and along one of Europe's most picturesque and wildlife-rich coasts.
"Unfortunately, this shows that the Commission was right when it demanded that member states of the Union act in an urgent and decisive manner," Ms de Palacio said.
The 15 members of the EU must ensure "that there is a level of coastal protection equivalent to that existing now in the United States", she said.
The commissioner appealed for an end to the use of "rust buckets" and "ecological time-bombs" in seas around the EU.
Fears are growing in northwestern Spain that the sinking of the Prestige will wreak havoc on wildlife, the environment and the economy.
De Palacio urged EU members to speed up the implementation of a package of rules agreed in 2000 after the last similar major disaster, involving the Erika tanker off the French coast in 1999.
EU governments have agreed to phase out single-hull vessels like the Prestige by 2015, while also setting limits for the age of vessels plying their territorial waters.
The United States has, since 1992, banned single-hull tankers from approaching its coastline, a measure enacted in response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.
"I can't understand why European coastal states don't have the same safety arrangements as does the United States," de Palacio said.
But she added that an accelerated EU ban on single-skin ships was unlikely with member states already dragging their feet over existing legislation.
The commissioner is embroiled in a row with Britain, which has strongly rejected her contention that the Prestige left Gibraltar "several times" over the past five years without once being inspected.
De Palacio reiterated that she wanted more answers from British and Greek authorities the Prestige visited the port of Kalamata in June, according to Britain.
"We want to know how they applied this (EU legislation) in Kalamata, for the Greek authorities, and in Gibraltar, for the British authorities."
If the changes sought by Brussels had already been in place, "that would have meant that the Prestige, in Gibraltar this summer, would have been subject to rigorous inspection", de Palacio added.
"This is for the very simple reason that the Prestige is more than 15 years old and it's a single-hull oil tanker."
But in a letter sent on Tuesday to the European Commission, Britain insisted that de Palacio was in the wrong and must publicly admit the fact.
The Prestige had only been to Gibraltar once in the past five years, on June 13 this year, for a re-fuelling stop and had not even entered the port, wrote Britain's ambassador to the EU, Sir Nigel Sheinwald.
The European Commission meanwhile said it was ready to free up more funds, on top of €117.7m earmarked by Spain, to help fishermen whose livelihoods have been jeopardised by the oil spill.
"The EU won't let them down," said Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler.
French President Jacques Chirac also urged the EU to quickly implement maritime safety laws, as Paris beefed up its anti-pollution plan after an oil tanker sank off the Spanish coast.
"The situation is so serious that it requires the EU to urgently speed up the implementation of the measures decided after the sinking of the Erika, including those for France," a spokesman quoted Chirac as saying.
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