Possible compromise on proposed pollution rules

A compromise is in sight over the EU's proposed maritime pollution rules, opposed by Malta, Greece and Cyprus, following a meeting of EU justice ministers in Brussels yesterday.

The proposals aim at setting minimum punishments for skippers and shipping companies responsible for oil slicks.

Justice Minister Tonio Borg yesterday said Malta was now "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel".

A spokesman for the Dutch presidency told The Times that the presidency had submitted a new proposal and now it was up to the member states to reach an agreement, if possible before the EU summit due on December 17.

Franco Frattini, the new Justice Commissioner, said he was optimistic that a compromise was close between the three countries on the one hand and the other member states on the other.

Commissioner Frattini told The Times that as a compromise proposal, "the European Commission is ready to start negotiations in order to change the related maritime international conventions so that the level of protection for ships carrying the EU flag will also be the same for non-EU maritime flags".

Mr Frattini explained that the problems being raised by the three Mediterranean countries were that ships carrying EU flags would have stricter rules than the others and that this would result in discrimination.

However he said the commission was very worried about the risk of oil pollution disasters in the maritime environment, as had happened in the case of the Prestige, and wanted to take action as soon as possible so that there would not be a recurrence of the incident.

During the last three Justice and Home Affairs councils, Malta, Cyprus and Greece kept up their common opposition to the new rules arguing that if introduced, they would disadvantage their shipping industries and consequently their economies.

Minister Borg described yesterday's council as positive. "A lot of member states, including the presidency, have now started to realise that we have strong objections. This led to the beginning of a process to find a compromise and we were finally presented with a set of new proposals."

He said that during the days preceding yesterday's council, Malta had done a lot of diplomatic work.

"There is now a probability of reaching an agreement which is not against our economic interests," he said, adding that the latest indications were that the clauses that would arise in discrimination against EU flags, Malta's main objection, were going to be revised.

The negotiations will now be held on a technical level.