WRITTEN QUESTION E-0714/03

by Rosa Miguélez Ramos (PSE) to the Council

(11 March 2003)

Subject: Prestige: additional European compensation fund

On 21 November 2002, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the Prestige disaster off the coast of Galicia. Paragraph 6 reads:

Calls for the Commission proposal establishing an additional European compensation fund of EUR 1 billion for oil pollution damage to be implemented immediately.

On 19 December 2002 the EP adopted a resolution on safety at sea and measures to alleviate the effects of the Prestige disaster. Paragraph 9 reads:

Demands that the Council adopt a satisfactory Common Position along the lines of Parliament's position at first reading on the proposal for a regulation on the establishment of a fund for the compensation of oil pollution damage in European waters and related measures.

What is the Council's view of these requests from Parliament?

What measures has the Council taken or does it intend to take in response?

Reply

(2 October 2003)

As a part of the Erika II package, the Commission proposed in December 2000 the creation of an EU fund for the compensation of oil pollution damage in European waters. The Council, taking the view that it was necessary to ensure a proper and, as far as possible, global regime for liability and compensation in cases of pollution damage resulting from contamination by petroleum products and other noxious and hazardous substances transported by ships, considered however it preferable to achieve this objective through an international solution in the context of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), opting for the creation of a supplementary fund for damages caused by oil pollution in the framework of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPCF). In consequence, the Transport Council on 28 June 2001 agreed a common approach for the delegations of the Member States and the representatives of the Commission in the ongoing negotiations in the IOPCF/IMO framework in order to reach agreement on the establishment of such a fund as soon as possible and preferably by 2003.

This approach met with a successful outcome with the decision of the Diplomatic Conference on 16 May 2003 to adopt a Protocol establishing an International Oil Pollution Compensation Supplementary Fund. This fund will add a third tier of compensation to the compensation available under the 1992 Civil Liability and Fund Conventions, increasing the total amount of compensation payable for any one incident to 750 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR), corresponding to approximately EUR 910 million. This means that compensation available for victims of oil spills will be multiplied by five.

The protocol will be opened for signature from 31 July 2003 and the new fund will come into existence once the protocol has been ratified by at least eight States who have received at least a combined total of 450 million tonnes of contributing oil. Ratification by the 15 EU Member States and the 10 accession States will thus ensure that the new fund will be operational. In this respect, it is recalled that the Council (Telecommunications, Transport and Energy) on 6 December 2002 reaffirmed the intention of those Member States which are parties to the existing global compensation regimes to ratify the supplementary fund.