The ESGR aims to address current barriers in ship recycling within the EU. Although the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (SRR), implemented on 31 December 2018, was designed to ensure “environmentally sound and safe” ship recycling practices, challenges are said to remain.
“Our goal is to make ship recycling in the EU transparent, efficient, profitable and sustainable. We want to ensure regulations are effective but not too burdensome, and that international actors play by the same rules,” said Antonio Barredo, chair of ESRG.
Its key priorities include:
- Creating a level playing field both within the EU and other countries
- Simplifying bureaucratic processes to speed up notification procedures and reduce administrative costs
- Expanding the regulation’s scope to cover all types of vessels, regardless of size, type or flag
- Strengthening control mechanisms to ensure proper certification of yards and penalise violations of the legislation
- Strengthening the ship recycling sector in the EU by limiting the number of vessels leaving the EU at the end of their life
‘All hands on deck’
“The launch of our Ship Recycling Working Group is a major step forward in advocating environmentally sound dismantling of end-of-life ships in Europe and beyond, and is a token of EuRIC’s leadership in driving the circular economy. We call on policymakers and stakeholders to join – because we need all hands on deck to make a real impact,” stated Julia Ettinger, EuRIC’s secretary general.
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