That is an improvement on international standards, the Marpol Convention in particular, and they need to be amplified.

Practice has shown us, of course, that the Marpol Convention with its discharge requirement for ships is inadequate.

I thus welcome the fact that both the Council and the rapporteur endorse the Marpol Convention.

The 1973 Marpol Convention contains some exceptions for accidental loss or escape, or when the safety of the ship is involved. 5.

Areas under the Marpol Convention, Annex I (References are given in brackets) 1.

The new international provisions amending Annex I to the Marpol Convention 73/78 lay down:

With regard to the Marpol Convention, the Court observed that the Community is not a party to this Convention.

For example, we have been working together to help shipowners comply with the requirements of the MARPOL convention.

Here, it would be appropriate to take action within the framework of the MARPOL Convention.

Facilities exist for the receipt and disposal of all wastes under the MARPOL convention.

The MARPOL Convention distinguishes between three categories of oil tanker:

Our text is in keeping with them and we are quite simply making use of the option available under the Marpol Convention of bringing in stricter provisions.

The MARPOL Convention also provides for more rigorous checks on the state of ageing oil tankers.

A similar fund to pay compensation for damage caused by oil pollution already exists under the MARPOL Convention.

Despite the MARPOL Convention on the disposal of plastics at sea, marine litter is still a problem.

I therefore find this criticism puzzling, as the directive complies with both the Marpol Convention and the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Last year there were six thousand fuel transhipments, more than ten thousand of them on the high seas, without the safety measures laid down in the Marpol Convention.

However, this is also dealt with elsewhere, namely in the MARPOL Convention, which regulates questions relating to the marine environment.

Ports The disposal of waste food from ships was mainly governed by the international MARPOL Convention.

– Speed up the phasing-out of single-hull oil tankers and introduce the changes recently agreed in the IMO Marpol Convention.

It is totally in keeping with the 73/78 Marpol Convention (Prevention of Pollution from Ships), while concentrating more particularly on the waste-disposal facilities in ports.

International regulations were already in existence, since the Marpol Convention imposes binding international regulations upon all vessels, according to which all discharges at sea are prohibited.

Firstly, I cannot allow it to be said that a conflict exists between this proposal for a directive and the Marpol Convention, as this is entirely untrue.

Although not subject to any international rules, it is proposed to submit the sulphur content of sulphur fuels, for instance sulphurous oxide, to control under the Marpol Convention.

• Greece issued a declaration opposing the agreement reached on the grounds that the provisions in the directive go further than the MARPOL Convention.