EU calls for criminal charges for those responsible for oil spills

Those responsible for massive oil spills that damage the maritime environment should be charged under criminal law and face possible jail time or pay hefty fines, the European Union's transport commissioner said. Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said making oil spills a criminal offence would encourage shipbuilders and ship owners to work harder to meet safety and environmental standards for tankers as well as to stop the dumping of waste oil on the high seas.
"A measure of this type is particularly important in shipping," de Palacio said in unveiling her proposal, aimed at stemming oil spills off the coasts of EU countries. The plan comes after the oil tanker Prestige split and sank off the Spanish coast last November, spilling thousands of tons of fuel and damaging local fishing and wildlife.

Several other proposals to prevent oil spills have already been adopted by the 15-nation bloc. In December, EU nations agreed to ban single-hull tankers from carrying heavy fuel through their waters. They also agreed to set up a European Maritime Safety Agency to better monitor ships and their movements.
EU officials say most oil pollution, however, is the result of deliberate discharges, such as tank-cleaning operations and waste oil disposal. Applying criminal charges for pollution offences is particularly important to dissuade future offenders, as the current international regime "does not provide sufficient financial disincentives," said de Palacio.

The EU said that almost 1,000 oil slicks were detected in the North and Baltic seas alone in 2001, proving that only a small portion of the ships discharging illegally are actually detected, and only a few are prosecuted.
Under the new plan, which still needs approval from the European Parliament and EU governments, ship owners who deliberately dump oil or falsify records would face "very substantial fines." In cases of major oil spills like that of the Prestige -- a single-hulled tanker -- and cases where "gross negligence" leads to the spill, ship owners would be "very severely penalized" and could face criminal charges, the plan said.