SIMIC

NEGOTIATORS from the EU Parliament and Council have reached an informal agreement to expand an existing ban on ship discharge of oil spills to now include sewage and garbage, reports Athens' Safety4Sea.

Under the agreement, substances already prohibited from ship discharge, such as oil and noxious liquid substances, will be joined by sewage, garbage and scrubber residue.



Additionally, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have included a provision mandating the EU to reassess the regulations five years after their implementation into national law.



This review will evaluate whether penalties should be imposed for marine plastic litter, container loss and plastic pellet spills from ships.



To bolster monitoring and enforcement, MEPs have ensured that EU member states and the commission will enhance communication regarding pollution incidents, share best practices for pollution mitigation, and implement follow-up measures.



This includes utilising the CleanSeaNet European satellite system for oil spill and vessel detection.



To prevent illegal discharge from going undetected, the agreement stipulates the digital verification of all high-confidence CleanSeaNet alerts, with a target of verifying at least 25 per cent of them by competent national authorities.