Parliament and Council negotiators
reached an informal deal to extend an existing ban on discharge of oil spills
by ships to include sewage and garbage.
On Thursday, 15 Feb, EU co-legislators
preliminarily agreed to update EU rules on preventing pollution from ships in
European seas and ensuring perpetrators face fines.
Banning
more types of spills from ships
According to the deal, the current list
of substances banned from being discharged from ships, such as oil and noxious
liquid substances, will now include the discharge of sewage, garbage, and
residues from scrubbers.
MEPs managed to secure an obligation
for the EU to review the rules five years after their transposition into
national law to assess if marine plastic litter, loss of containers and plastic
pellet spills from ships should also face penalties.
More
robust verification
MEPs ensured EU countries and the
Commission will communicate more on pollution incidents, best practices to
tackle pollution, and follow-up measures, following alerts by the European
satellite system for oil spill and vessel detection, CleanSeaNet. To prevent
illegal discharge from dispersing and therefore becoming undetectable, the
agreed text foresees the digital check of all high confidence CleanSeaNet
alerts and an aim to verify at least 25% of them by the competent national
authorities.
Effective
penalties
EU countries will need to introduce
effective and dissuasive fines for ships breaching these rules, while criminal
sanctions were addressed in separate legislation MEPs already agreed with EU
governments last November. According to preliminary deal, EU countries shall
not set penalties at such a low level that would fail to ensure its dissuasive
nature.
Quote
EP rapporteur Marian-Jean Marinescu
(EPP, Romania) said: “Ensuring the
health of our seas demands not just legislation, but robust enforcement.
Member states must not falter in their duty to safeguard our marine environment. We need a concentrated effort,
utilising advanced technologies like satellite monitoring and on-site
inspections, to stamp out illegal discharges effectively. Penalties must
reflect the seriousness of these offenses, acting as a true deterrent. Our
commitment is clear: cleaner seas, stricter accountability, and a sustainable
maritime future for all.”
Next
steps
The preliminary deal still needs to
be approved by Council and Parliament. EU
countries will have 30 months to transpose new rules into national law and
prepare for its implementation