EU Environment Commissioner Dimas on Cote d'Ivoire Toxic Dumping
"In simple words it is prohibited to export hazardous chemicals and wastes to non-EU countries…"
02.10.2006 |Sascha Gabizon
AFP
September 29, 2006
EU environment head slams dumping practices following Ivorian disaster
Paldiski, Estonia - EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has slammed the "illegal shipping of toxic waste" and praised tiny Estonia for impounding a ship at the heart of a poisoning scandal in Africa.
Dimas said his visit to Estonia was precipitated by "a series of tragic events", most notably in Ivory Coast, where the dumping of toxic material has been blamed for causing an environmental catastrophe.
Dimas was speaking yesterday at the port of Paldiski where the vessel at the centre of the controversy has been moored for several weeks.
The Probo Koala, chartered by the Netherlands-based shipping company, Trafigura Beheer, last month offloaded more than 500 tons of waste - reportedly a mixture of oil residue and caustic soda used to rinse out the ship's tanks - in Ivory Coast.
A local company charged with disposing of the waste dumped it on several landfills in Abidjan, sparking a health crisis which has claimed eight lives, seen 69 people hospitalised and triggered 80 000 calls to doctors for medical help.
"Such highly toxic waste should never have left the European Union. European and international laws were broken. There is no excuse for it. What happened was not only unethical, it was criminal," Dimas said.
"What is more, I fear that the Probo Koala incident is only the tip of the iceberg," he added.
Estonian officials on Wednesday ordered the Probo Koala to remain docked in Paldiski while a criminal investigation is carried out. The investigation was launched after tests conducted on waste that the Probo Koala's crew had asked to offload in the Baltic state showed "similarities" with that delivered to Ivory Coast.
Dimas declared his full support for the Estonian authorities in their quest to prosecute "the criminals who perpetrated this crime". He also pledged to raise awareness about the practices of illegal shipping of toxic waste, particularly among EU member states.
"European governments need to be more aware of what is happening in their harbours and on their ships, and of what needs to be done to prevent another such disaster," he said.
"I plan to put forward a proposal to criminalise certain environmentally damaging practices, such as the one perpetrated."
Before giving his speech, Dimas boarded a ship belonging to the environmental activist group Greenpeace, the Arctic Sunrise, which earlier this week had blockaded the Probo Koala inside Paldiski to bring pressure on Estonia to prevent the vessel leaving port. Greenpeace has also filed a lawsuit against Trafigura Beheer.
"We should not underestimate the role of Greenpeace in this case," Dimas said. "This case with the Probo Koala ship has shown how civil society can make a difference."
Initially, the Estonian authorities had opposed the Greenpeace action, arresting four activists on Tuesday, two of them after they jumped into the cold Baltic Sea in the late afternoon when they thought the Probo Koala was about to leave the port. All four were later released.
And the Arctic Sunrise's captain was fined about R2 100 for entering the port without permission. - Sapa-AFP
"In simple words it is prohibited to export hazardous chemicals and wastes to non-EU countries…"
Reuters
September 28, 2006
EU condemns Africa waste discharge, vows vigilance
28 Sep 2006 09:26:02 GMT
By David Mardiste
TALLINN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The EU's environment chief on Thursday condemned the discharge of toxic waste in Africa that killed at least eight people and vowed to beef up policing to stop the illegal transport of dangerous waste in the future.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the actions of the Dutch-chartered tanker killed and injured innocent people.
"We have a case of clear violation of European and international law with deadly results," he said.
"It's important ... to make sure that criminal cases like this will not go unnoticed and will not be repeated in the future."
The Probo Koala -- Dutch-chartered, Greek-managed and Panamanian-flagged -- was impounded on Wednesday by Estonian police after a criminal investigation began on suspicions it had leaked similar toxic materials into the Baltic sea.
"In simple words it is prohibited to export hazardous chemicals and wastes to non-EU countries," Dimas told a press conference at the Estonian harbour where the ship was seized.
"This defenceless country (Ivory Coast) was a victim of this criminal act," he said.
The commissioner said there was a great need for member states of the EU to better implement and apply European law on toxic dumping which had been revised and beefed up last July.
"Legally we have the means to fight illegal transportation of waste. What was needed was better policing in such transit places as harbours, he added.
The prosecutor's office on Wednesday impounded the vessel in the Estonian port of Paldiski. The Baltic state had been asked by Ivory Coast to detain the ship, after an eighth person in the West African country died from exposure to the waste.
Thousands of people in Ivory Coast have suffered vomiting, stomach pains and other symptoms caused by toxic fumes from waste from the ship in late August. The incident has stretched the country's health services and forced its cabinet to resign.
Estonia's Environment Ministry said tests of the Baltic waters around the vessel showed similar substances as those in the Ivory Coast.
But Trafigura, the Dutch-based oil trading firm which chartered the ship, denied the vessel had been impounded and in a statement said the waste on the Probo Koala in Estonia was not the same waste as discharged in Abidjan.
The firm described the waste dumped in Ivory Coast as "chemical slops", a mixture of gasoline, spent caustic soda and water and said it was a normal by-product of cleaning tanks used to transport fuel.
Environmental group Greenpeace on Thursday welcomed the decision by the Estonian government to impound the ship, and the signal by Brussels that the EU would use the Probo Koala case as an example in dealing with other illicit toxic dumping.
French embassy officials on Tuesday said toxic matter recovered from 13 sites in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan would be shipped to France for disposal.
In the Ivory Coast, medical personnel had carried out 80,000 consultations linked to the dumping by Monday, an official said.
“Dimas estimates that up to half of the sea transports of hazardous materials could be illegal.”
Helsingin Sanomat
September 29, 2006
EU Commissioner Dimas denounces actions of tanker Probo Koala
Greenpeace action praised
The European Commissioner for the Environment, Stavros Dimas, has sharply denounced the actions of the tanker ship Probo Koala. Speaking on Thursday at a press conference at the Estonian harbour of Paldiski on the Gulf of Finland, Dimas said that the ship had operated in an unethical and criminal manner.
The vessel is believed to have caused a toxic disaster in Ivory Coast when it left a load of hazardous waste there for disposal. Eight people reportedly died as a result.
Dimas also says that the toxic substances on board were a hazard for members of the crew, who have been found to have 60 times the normal level of certain chemicals in their bodies.
The dumping of hazardous waste in Africa is not necessarily as unique as the attention focused on the Probo Koala case might suggest. Dimas estimates that up to half of the sea transports of hazardous materials could be illegal.
Dimas seees the latest case as a cautionary example to others. He also promised to upgrade the implementation of EU legislation on hazardous waste transport.
The European Commission says that the ship has violated EU legislation banning the transport of waste from EU ports to third countries.
However, the EU does not have the right to impose punishments. Such measures are the responsibility of individual member states.
The case is now being investigated by Estonian police and environmental authorities, under the direction of the state prosecutor.
Estonia's Minister of the Environment Villu Reiljan said on Thursday that he is convinced that the ship tried to take advantage of the lack of experience of the new EU member state, and to leave its bilge and waste water, which contained toxic substances, in Paldiski.
Samples of liquids taken from the Probo Koala were analysed at a new and efficient fuel analysis laboratory, which was opened in the capital Tallinn in mid-August.
The ship wanted to discharge its bilge and waste water before embarking from Paldiski earlier this week.
Estonian police stopped the ship on Wednesday after an analysis of the water used to wash the tanker's storage tanks were found to contain the same substances that had caused the toxic disaster in Ivory Coast.
The environmental organisation Greenpeace had prevented the ship from leaving Paldiski on Tuesday, using an icebreaker and rubber rafts to blockade the vessel. Dimas and Reiljan praised the actions of Greenpeace in the matter.
In addition to transport of hazardous waste to third countries, the Probo Koala is suspected of having functioned as a floating oil refinery, picking up raw material from the Latvian port of Ventspils, from where it returned to Paldiski on September 14th.
The Swiss Trafigura Beheer shipping line, which owns the vessel, has denied any wrongdoing. The majority of the company's shares are in American hands. The company is registered in The Netherlands. It had leased the tanker, which was built in 1989, from a Greek company. The vessel sails under the Panamanian flag.
“Trafigura said September 24 the material unloaded in Ivory Coast had „little or no toxicity,” citing tests, and that the company „does not accept it has acted improperly in any way.”
Budapest Business Journal
September 29, 2006
EU says shipment of waste to Ivory Coast may have been illegal
The European Union said a shipment of waste from the Netherlands that was dumped in the Ivory Coast, allegedly leaving seven people dead and 57,000 seeking medical help, may have been illegal. The oil-products carrier Probo Koala was detained in Estonia yesterday after toxins were found on board. The vessel hired by Dutch commodity trader Trafigura Beheer BV, left the Netherlands on July 5 and arrived August 19 in the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan where waste, known as slops, was dumped. „We have European waste-shipment regulations which ban such export, but apparently the law was broken,” said European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, who visited the ship.
„It is shocking toxic waste from Europe reached the Ivory Coast causing so much human suffering,” he said in a statement e-mailed yesterday. The dumping in Abidjan sparked protests that led to the collapse of the African nation's government on September 6. Closely held Trafigura, an Amsterdam-based trader of energy and metals, said company director Claude Dauphin and regional manager Jean-Pierre Valentini were arrested in Abidjan on September 18. „The company's testing of the slops currently on the ship shows that these are non-toxic and very close to ordinary gasoline,” Trafigura said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Trafigura said September 24 the material unloaded in Ivory Coast had „little or no toxicity,” citing tests, and that the company „does not accept it has acted improperly in any way.” The European Court of Justice can impose a „significant” fine on a country for allowing a ship carrying toxins to leave for a destination outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, European Commission spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said today by mobile telephone from Estonia's Paldiski port. (Bloomberg)
