Text tabled : A6-0063/2007, A6-0070/2007, A6-0079/2007, A6-0081/2007, A6-0086/2007

  Marie-Arlette Carlotti (PSE), in writing. – (FR) Shortly after the ‘Erika’ and ‘Prestige’ oil tankers went down, the Socialist Group in the European Parliament led a campaign calling for the EU to provide itself with legislation aimed at enhancing maritime safety and at doing more to prevent accidental pollution in its territorial waters.

This campaign has borne fruit, but a genuine European maritime safety area has not fully been created.

This ‘third maritime safety package’ is a decisive step towards achieving this objective. The five reports submitted to the European Parliament contain several major advances:

- a clear and precise legal framework for places of refuge for ships in distress, under the aegis of an independent authority;

- a permanent inspection body, to make inspections easier;

- a high level of protection for passengers, in line with that for other modes of transport;

- more effective and higher quality controls in European ports, with special attention paid to ‘high-risk’ vessels.

I shall therefore vote in favour of these reports. I hope from now on that the EU will also improve its legislation against the ‘hooligans of the sea’, who are responsible in the Mediterranean for ‘daily oil slicks’. There are 650 000 tonnes of oil spills each year as a result of unauthorised degassing, a figure that equates to 75 ‘Erikas’!