France, Spain Impose Controls on Older Oil Tankers

MALAGA, Spain, November 27, 2002 (ENS) - In the wake of the "Prestige" oil spill, the leaders of Spain and France have placed rigid controls on the passage of all single-hulled oil tankers more than 15 years old through their 200 mile exclusive economic zones. These ships will be subject to inspection and will be expelled from French and Spanish waters if it is thought that they represent a danger.

President José María Aznar of Spain and French President Jacques Chirac announced the new controls at a Franco-Spanish Summit meeting here Tuesday. Provoked by the spill from the oil tanker "Prestige" that is now fouling the Spanish coast, the two leaders said the new regulations would take effect today.

President Jacques Chirac of France (left) and President Jose Aznar of Spain enter the Palacio de la Aduana in Malaga. (Photo courtesy Office of President Aznar)

Fears are growing in France that the winds and tide are pushing the oil northeast towards the French coast.

"We have decided that enough is enough, that we will take the initiative," said French President Jacques Chirac.

He and Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar said all older single-hulled ships carrying petroleum fuel, tar or asphalt "without devices that control the level and the pressure of these hydrocarbons" constitute a threat to their coastal waters.

Single-hulled tankers built before 1987 will have to provide information to the French and Spanish authorities concerning their cargo, destination, operators and any other information which can affect the transport in question, they said.

Chirac and Aznar said their decision is based on United Nations Article 56 on Maritime Law.

President Aznar said he has sent a letter outlining seven measures of maritime security to all European leaders.

The Bahamian owned, Greek operated Prestige wallows in the Atlantic before sinking November 19. (Photo courtesy Xunta da Galicia)

In addition, Aznar said they propose to move the date for the requirement of double hulled tankers up from 2015, and also improve the inspection of ships.

The letter says it will be necessary to reinforce the mechanisms to control sea traffic, and to remove uncontrolled territories "which can become paradises" for shippers that try to evade the new stricter regulations.

Proposals for changes in international maritime law will be developed in an attempt to forestall a repetition of the Prestige disaster.

Presidents Aznar and Chirac agree on coastal protection from aging oil tankers. (Photo courtesy Office of President Aznar)

The European Commission is pushing for emergency action by EU member states to strengthen maritime safety in the wake of the Prestige disaster. A first agreement could be reached as early as next week when EU transport ministers are due to meet.

Specific measures being sought by Transport and Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio include limits on the transport of dangerous goods by sea within 200 miles of shore and a requirement for heavy fuel oil, which is particularly polluting, immediately to be carried in double-hulled tankers.

In a letter to all European Union member states, de Palacio has urged governments to accelerate application of the Erika package, written in response to the oil spill by the tanker Erika in December 1999 which oiled the Brittany shores of France.

The measures in the Erika package closely parallel the proposals by the French and Spanish leaders Tuesday - strengthening inspections at ports, phasing out single-hulled oil tankers, creating a European maritime safety agency, and monitoring traffic in EU waters. Member states must start implementing these in July 2003.

Spanish officials examine oil from the "Prestige" on Barragon beach. (Photo courtesy Government of Spain)

French Ecology Minister Roselyne Bachelot flew over the spill area Tuesday, and said France is sending a three person submarine down to a depth of 3,600 meters (1,800 feet) to determine whether or not the "Prestige" is still leaking oil. This operation is scheduled to start on Sunday.

Some 900 volunteers are now assisting with oiled wildlife rescue efforts, taking oiled birds to a new rehabilitation center in the coastal town of Pontevedra established this week by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the regional environmental agency Xunta. The volunteers are also helping to clean the heavy fuel oil from the Spanish coast. The latest figures show that 141 beaches over more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) of coastline are affected.

IFAW's Jay Holcomb says the slick could come ashore anywhere along the coast from France in the north to Portugal in the south. “Although it is heading more towards France," he said, "we have just heard of eight oiled birds being picked up a long way south of here in Portugal that our volunteers from there will be bringing to this center, so it is hard to say where problems may occur at any time."

Some 6,800 Spanish fishermen who made their living from the once pristine waters must stay in port as the fishing grounds have been closed along 486 kilometers (300 miles) of the Spanish coast.