[T]he European Parliament voted in favour of the new EU Ship Recycling Regulation that bans the breaking of EU ships on beaches...The NGO [Shipbreaking Platform] coalition warns however that the Regulation will fail to change the current state of play if no financial incentive is rapidly introduced to ensure compliance with the new rules...“Without a financial incentive, circumvention of European law covering end-of-life vessels will persist and European ship owners will be allowed to continue to seek significant financial profits by externalizing environmental and human health costs to the shipbreaking beaches of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, and to the exploited workforce there,” said Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform...Recent studies have proposed an array of possible mechanisms to implement the polluter pays principle for end-of-life ships and have clearly shown that a financial incentive for proper ship recycling is legally feasible, enforceable, and necessary.