Action on maritime safety top of the transport agenda

Date: 29/06/2000

By Renée Cordes

During its six months at the helm of the EU, France will undoubtedly show picture after picture of the ecological damage caused by the Erika oil tanker disaster off the Brittany coast earlier this year.

Paris, which has a vested interest in repairing the damage from the oil spill which resulted from the 25-year-old single-hulled tanker breaking in two, plans to make maritime safety the corner-stone of its approach towards transport policy during its presidency.

French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot will seek to get agreement by the end of this year on a package of measures to tighten shipping laws and keep dangerous vessels out of EU waters. The proposals drawn up by the European Commission include a ban on ships more than 15 years old entering all Union ports if they have been detained by port authorities more than twice in the previous two years and the publication of a 'black list' of substandard vessels every six months.

The EU executive plans to come forward with further proposals later this year which are expected to urge better surveillance of maritime navigation and the creation of a European maritime safety agency. Paris will put its full force behind the initiative and insist that applicant countries such as Cyprus and Malta abide by existing Union legislation on maritime safety.

Back on dry land, Gayssot, a Communist and former train driver with a strong trade union background, will campaign for measures to improve.

The EU executive has already promised to come forward with proposals for a series of resolutions later this year, but it will be difficult for the French to hammer out a deal on the controversial issue of truckers' working hours as the battle over whether to include self-employed drivers within the scope of the planned new rules continues.

At the start of their presidency, the French may try to claim victory in thrashing out a deal on the partial liberalisation of the European rail sector. But critics argue that the real test of what has been achieved will be whether the market-opening rules signed up to by transport ministers in Brussels will actually be implemented on the ground.

Article forms part of a survey on the French EU Presidency, July-December 2000.