the European shipowners ask a fast and adapted application the new standards for the demolition for the ships



Paradoxicalally in the absolute disinterestedness, or at least in what it appears to be such, of the European ship yards, firstly of trade association SEA Europe, they are the shipowners to press so that the ships are demolished according to standards that would have to be those own of the same shipbuilding plants of the European Union.

Today the association of the European shipowners newly has activated itself asking a fast ratifies of the International 2009 Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) that it has the objective to do so as that the ships that have reached the end of their operating life are demolished and recycled with modalities that do not place some health hazard and human safety or for the atmosphere.

The European Shipowners' Community Associations (ECSA) has explained that the efforts in existence so that Convention HKC is ratified are got bogged down because of the effectiveness of the criteria of the Convention that they demand that it is the more It are important than flag is the States that is more active in the field of the naval demolition engages both to respect requirement of the HKC, fact that leads to a situation in which the two parts they are set in attended with the objective to anticipate the movements eventually put into effect of the counterpart. According to the association of the shipowners of the EU it is therefore necessary that the EU commission and the States of the European Union exhort all the Member States Maritime of the International Organization (IMO) to ratify Convention HKC.

Moreover, in specific taken for position introduced today, the European Shipowners' Community Associations (ECSA) asks an appropriate application of the regulations EU 1257 of the 2013 (SRR) on the recycling for the ships in way such that this acts as it raises stimulating the yards of naval demolition to comply to requirement previewed from convention HKC.

The European shipowners consider that the regulations on the recycling of the ships of the EU adopted in 2013 can become a precious instrument in inducing the greatest yards than naval demolition of the world to approach the standards of Convention HKC allowing they to demand the inclusion of the so-called European directory of the systems of recycling of the ships, approved of from the EU, that it includes the yards where the ships clappers flag EU can be demolished and recycled.

In the document the prompt ECSA also the industry of the shipping to assure a correct money laundering of the ships, in particular during the period of transition that precedes the effectiveness of convention HKC and the full application of regulations SRR of the EU.

"We must make in way - the general secretary of the ECSA, Patrick Verhoeven has explained - than the Convention of Hong Kong is ratified more soon possible. It - it has remembered - places obligation clear to all the operators and all the Maritime parts of the International Organization in order to assure that the recycling of the ships does not involve useless human health hazards, safety and the atmosphere".

With respect to the institution of the European directory of the systems of recycling of the ships, Verhoeven it has evidenced that "the Commission must in existence place an inclusive procedure that allows with all the yards of having the possibility to demand the admission to the directory. This - it has found the general secretary of the ECA - would give they a strong incentive to change and to improve their activities approaching them the levels of quality of the HKC".

About the responsibility of the shipowners so that they guarantee the corrected money laundering of their ships, above all during the transient period before the effectiveness of the HKC and the application of regulations SRR of the EU, Verhoeven has asked all the shipowners "to act in good faith and to elaborate plans in order to recycle their ships in responsible and social transparent way. In the first instance - it has specified - this means that the shipowners would have to on a timely basis assure the predisposition or the update of taken care of inventories of the dangerous materials. We - he has concluded - encourage them also to on a voluntary basis make already use of the directory of the yards of demolition authorized from the EU and to engage in a constructive dialogue with all the interested parts".