ENVI Committee Approves Controversial Ship Recycling Levy

The Committee on Environment (ENVI) of the European Parliament voted yesterday in favour of the draft report of MEP Carl Schlyter on the proposed ship recycling regulation.
MEPs approved the controversial compromise amendment that introduces a tonnage-based levy of 0.05 Euro per gross tonnage, to be charged on all ships calling at EU ports, irrespective of their flag. This proposal would substantially increase the cost of calling at EU ports, resulting in traffic evasion to non-EU ports, distortion of calling patterns and modal backshift to land-based modes.
"The result of the vote does not come as a surprise", said ESPO Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven, "All our efforts to make MEPs aware of the grave implications of the levy hit against a wall, even with those ENVI members that are familiar with the competitive nature of our industry. We will now step up our lobby actions to persuade other MEPs and Member States to reject this damaging proposal."
Parliament will vote on the report in plenary on 11 June. A proposal of the ENVI Rapporteur to get a mandate to enter in direct negotiations with the Council in view of reaching a first reading agreement was rejected. This means in practice that the current ENVI report, as voted today will first be voted in the EP plenary. The result of this plenary vote will then be the basis for further negotiations with the Council. So far, Member States have sought to bring the regulation proposal more in line with the 2009 Hong Kong Convention. The International 2009 Hong-Kong Convention (HKC) and implementing guidelines set up a global framework to improve the conditions applicable to recycling operations by placing relevant obligations on both shipowners and recycling facilities.
Source: ESPO