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BRUSSELS - The European Commission has published proposals to tighten rules on ship breaking to make it less dangerous and more environmentally sound.
It said most ship breaking took place in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where accident rates were high and pollution from the ships hit the coastline.
The 27-nation European Union could improve checks at its ports to ensure that ships do not leave the EU full of hazardous materials, it said in a report.
It also suggested giving financial aid to countries where ships are dismantled to help them protect their workers against the toxic materials that emerge when a ship is broken up.
It said the EU could also consider increasing its own capacity for ship breaking.
The report, which will now draw comment from EU governments and other interested parties, leaves open the possibility of EU subsidies for clean dismantling facilities in Europe.
"This situation is of major concern to the European Union since nearly one in three ships in the world's fleet sails under the flag of an EU member state, and even more are owned by European companies," the Commission said in a statement.
It said 200 to 600 large ships were taken apart every year worldwide, with at least two-thirds of them in South Asia.
In early 2006, the French government recalled the Clemenceau, a mothballed aircraft carrier containing tonnes of asbestos, after the environmental group Greenpeace said that scrapping it in India would pose a health risk to workers.
- REUTERS
