"EU slammed for dumping toxic ships in developing countries", 23 Sep 2020

The EU’s legislation allowing the export of retired and potentially toxic ships to developing countries violates national obligations and is in contradiction with the European Green Deal, NGOs said...

In a report published today, leading environmental organisations questioned the legal basis for the continued export of retired ships to countries like [...] Bangladesh, where dismantling operations – often taking place in unsafe conditions – threaten people’s health and their environment...

[T]he NGOs – represented by the Shipbreaking Platform, the Basel Action Network, the European Environmental Bureau and Greenpeace – warned that proposals are being made for the EU to enter into special bilateral agreements with shipbreaking states such as India as a supposedly legitimate means to circumvent the Basel Convention’s Ban Amendment, which entered into force globally last December.

The groups called upon the EU to take urgent action to reform both the Waste Shipment Regulation and the Ship Recycling Regulation to ensure they are legally consistent with the international Basel Convention, which bans all exports of hazardous wastes from EU countries.

“We fear that the EU is just fine with human rights, environmental treaties and a ‘green deal’ until it impacts the bottom line of powerful industrial interests,” states Ingvild Jenssen, Director of the Shipbreaking Platform...