Text tabled : A7-0319/2012

  Juozas Imbrasas (EFD), in writing. − (LT) I voted for this proposal because on 27 October 2011, the Commission published a proposal for the accession of the European Union to the Protocol for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against pollution resulting from exploration and exploitation of the continental shelf and the seabed and its subsoil (the ‘Offshore Protocol’). Adopted on 14 October 1994, the Offshore Protocol is one of the protocols to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean, commonly known as the ‘Barcelona Convention’, signed in 1976 and amended in 1995. The European Union and all EU Mediterranean coastal Member States are Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, together with 14 other Mediterranean countries. The Offshore Protocol covers a wide range of exploration and exploitation activities in the Mediterranean, as well as permit requirements, removal of abandoned or disused installations, use and removal of harmful substances, liability and compensation requirements, coordination with other Parties of the Barcelona Convention at regional level as well as provisions on safety, contingency planning and monitoring. The Protocol entered into force on 24 March 2011, following its ratification by six contracting parties (Albania, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Cyprus and Syria), and so far has been neither signed nor ratified by the Union. The accession of the Union to the Protocol requires, under Article 218(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the consent of the European Parliament.