In July 1998 Ministers from 15 European States signed an historic agreement
to reduce marine pollution in the north-east Atlantic. At the OSPAR convention
meeting, Ministers agreed to aim for "close to zero" concentrations
of man-made hazardous substances and artificial radioactive substances
in the marine environment. The aim is to stop "discharges, emissions
and losses" of each category of pollutants to the sea by the year
2020. The agreement also signals an end to the dumping of nearly all parts
of offshore oil installations at sea.
This agreement signals a radical change in policy for the UK and France,
Europe’s nuclear waste reprocessors. However the possibility that the
new MOX plant at Sellafield may be granted a discharge licence by UK Ministers
calls into question the seriousness of their political commitment in signing
the 1998 OSPAR agreement. The fact that the new Social Democrat/Green
Government in Germany have said they will rewrite their Atomic Law to
prohibit further reprocessing of spent fuel, which for over 20 years has
been sent to BNFL, will increase the pressure on the UK Government to
refuse a discharge licence for the MOX plant.
Whilst the 1998 OSPAR agreement is a huge victory for all those who have
campaigned for an end to toxic discharges to the sea, many European environmental
organisations are very concerned about the EU commitment to making the
aspirations in the agreement a reality.
A proposed new EU Directive called the Water Framework Directive is clearly
not in line with the OSPAR commitments. The draft Directive, which deals
with freshwaters, only proposes to limit a handful of toxic chemicals
and sets a potential timeframe of 34 years. This is far short of what
Ministers agreed at OSPAR this summer. VOICE will not allow the Irish
Goverment’s disengenuous position to go unchallenged. The Minister for
the Marine cannot go to International meetings and sign agreements while
at the same time his Government colleague, Minister Noel Dempsey, supports
a contradictory piece of legislation at EU level.
VOICE will continue to monitor this Directive and to keep the pressure
on our Government and MEPs to support a Directive that will properly protect
Europes dying rivers and lakes.
