Has the EC scrapped its common sense?

ONCE again, the EU is undermining an international convention through unilateral action. The European Commission has published the first edition of the EU list of approved ship recycling facilities. The best thing you can really say about it is that it is a complete waste of time, effort and paper.

However the European Community Shipowners Associations (ECSA) is a very polite organisation and tries hard to be positive about this latest bureaucratic nonsense, while still laying bare its obvious flaws.

ECSA gently points out that "at this stage", the list only features yards situated in Europe and reaches under 30 per cent of the EU's own recycling capacity target. It comments: "For ECSA, this demonstrates clearly that third country ship recycling yards should get EU recognition to raise standards worldwide and respond to demand."