Community ports: vessels carrying dangerous or polluting goods (amend. Directive 93/75/EEC)

The rapporteur stressed the urgent need to improve the transport conditions of hazardous (particularly radioactive) or polluting goods. He therefore proposed that the contents of the directive in question should be extended to vessels passing through Community waters, without prejudice, of course, to their right to innocent passage. Mr Belenguer also stressed the danger involved in transporting hazardous goods on boats also carrying passengers. In this case, the operator should at least be required to provide the list of passengers. Commissioner Kinnock said that Amendments Nos 8 and 9 could be accepted as they should improve emergency procedures in the event of an accident. However, he rejected Amendments Nos 1 and 3 which aimed to prohibit the transport of radioactive materials on board passenger ships as they were outside the scope of the directive which only dealt with notification requirements. For the same reason Amendments Nos 2, 10 and 11 had to be rejected. As for Amendments Nos 4, 5 and 6, these were already reflected in the proposed directive being discussed by the Council, known under the acronym of EuroRep. Amendment No 7 was also unacceptable as it would impose on national authorities a permanent obligation to exchange all this information which was only necessary in exceptional circumstances. Finally, Amendment No 12 also could not be accepted as this repeated the provisions of a proposed directive, adopted by the Commission the previous year, on the presence of the passenger list on board vessels.