Tag: sea shipping

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations shipping agency, on Friday (17 July) agreed to voluntary proposals aimed at cutting carbon emissions, but environmental groups said it fell short of what was needed.

The European Parliament yesterday (5 May) adopted a new directive that forces EU countries to introduce criminal penalties for maritime pollution, whether caused deliberately or by negligence.

MEPs in the Parliament's Industry Committee have called for the EU's emissions trading regime to be tightened, bringing an end to free emissions allowances by 2020. But questions remain about the treatment of select industries exposed to 'carbon leakage' concerns.

While international efforts to clean up shipping made significant progress last week with a compromise on cutting air pollution from ships, a meeting of European transport ministers today (7 April) could see EU ambitions to tackle maritime pollution scaled down.

Shifting freight traffic to short-sea shipping, promoting innovation and raising the quality of jobs in the maritime sector are at the heart of the EU's new integrated maritime policy. The Communication also aims to cut rising CO2 emissions from maritime activities and tackle environmental damage to oceans.

Parliament has approved measures to increase safety at sea in hope of averting similar disasters to those caused by the sinking of the Erika and Prestige oil tankers. Member states now want more flexibility for ship inspections and dealing with vessels in distress.

The Commission has said that it will draft legislation, by the end of the year, aimed at tackling the shipping industry's rapidly growing contribution to climate change, by including the sector in Europe's carbon dioxide cap-and-trade system.

Short-Sea-Shipping remains a key area for dealing with Europe’s traffic congestion and environmental problems. 

The Parliament has resoundingly rejected the Commission's proposal to open port services to more competition, calling instead for a a directive on transparency and fair conditions of competition between ports.

New EU rules will force national and local authorities to take environmental considerations into account for all major public projects from agriculture to transport, industry, energy or tourism.

MEPs are outraged that the action plan to kick-start investment in segments of the trans-European transport network projects was adopted by the European Council without them being consulted.

Ministers have reached a political agreement on the guidelines for the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T) during the last Transport Council. One more project has been added to the Commission's list of 29 priority projects.

During the Transport Council on 9 October, Ministers discussed the new proposal on Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). The proposal met with fierce criticism from 'green' NGOs.

The High Level Group chaired by Karel Van Miert has decided to put forward several lists of TEN-T priority projects. It was faced with the difficult task of choosing between more than a hundred project proposals presented by the Member States and candidate countries.

Environmental NGOs have expressed worries that the Trans-European Network for Transport (TEN-T) might be extended to the accession countries without any previous assessment of the ecological consequences.