PURPOSE: to enhance safety and prevent pollution in maritime transport by making oil tankers safer.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) No 530/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the accelerated phasing-in of double-hull or equivalent design requirements for single-hull oil tankers.
CONTENT: following agreement in first reading, the European Parliament and Council adopted a recast of the 2002 Regulation on the phasing-in of double-hull requirements for single-hull oil tankers. That Regulation was adopted in 2002 in response to shipping accidents involving oil tankers and the ensuing pollution of the Union's waters and coastlines.
Besides merging the past amendments to the Regulation into one text, the recast modifies the procedure for updating references in the Regulation to the relevant rules adopted within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
The Regulation:
· prohibits the transporting to or from EU ports of heavy grades of oil in single-hull oil tankers ;
· lays down an accelerated phasing-in scheme for the application of the double-hull or equivalent design requirements of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships to single-hull oil tankers, with 2015 as the final deadline.
The Regulation applies to oil tankers of 5 000 tonnes deadweight and above: (a) which fly the flag of a Member State; (b) irrespective of their flag, which enter or leave a port or offshore terminal or anchor in an area under the jurisdiction of a Member State.
The Regulation does not apply to any warship, naval auxiliary or other ship, owned or operated by a State and used, for the time being, only on government non-commercial service.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 20/07/2012.
DELEGATED ACTS: the Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts to supplement or amend the Regulation. The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from 20 July 2012. This shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension. A delegated act shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of two months of notification (this period may be extended by two months). If objections are made by the European Parliament or the Council, the delegated act shall not enter into force.