Belgian NGO Shipbreaking Platform has called on the European Commission to take measures that will end the “dumping” of toxic ships and boost capacity for sustainable ship recycling.
The call follows the publication of the Commission’s evaluation of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR). The most pressing issue, as per the Commission, is shipowners who circumvent the regulation by switching to non-EU flags before recycling, allowing them to sell end-of-life vessels to cash buyers at steel prices that exceed EU rates who then dismantle the ships at South Asian yards where conditions more often than not fail to meet EU standards.