Council of EU and European Parliament agree on rules tackling shipping pollution

Article summary

The European Parliament and Council of the EU have reached a political agreement on the amendment of Directive 2005/35/EC on ship-source pollution and on the introduction of penalties for pollution offences (SSP Directive). The co-legislators agreed to align the Directive with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and to extend the scope of the directive to cover more types of polluting substances discharged into the sea, such as sewage and garbage. The rules will be reviewed five years after their transposition into national law to assess if marine plastic litter, loss of containers and plastic pellet spills from ships should also face penalties. EU countries will need to introduce effective and dissuasive fines for ships breaching these rules. The deal is still pending approval by the Council and Parliament. EU countries will have 30 months to transpose new rules into national law and prepare for its implementation.