European Policy

Media Alert 2011 list of EU companies

Media Alert – NGO releases 2011 list of top EU companies sending toxic ships to South Asia

NGO RELEASES LIST OF EU TOXIC SHIPS SENT TO SOUTH ASIA IN 2011 The NGO Shipbreaking Platform calls on the EU Commission to act and prevent toxic waste trade of European end-of-life ships Brussels, 16 January 2012 – The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a… More

Platform members meet in Norway, launch exhibit - Copyright Douwe van der Werf

Platform board members meet in Norway, launch exhibit

The board members of the Platform and staff met in Oslo, Norway from May 11 to May 15. An exhibition featuring pictures of shipbreaking yards taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh, by Bangladeshi photographer Saiful Huq Omi was featured at DogA, an architecture and design venue,… More

Environmental NGO calls on Norway to reform its shipbreaking aid package for Bangladesh

A six-million-dollar aid package from the Norwegian development agency NORAD was criticised by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a coalition of international expert organisations on environment, labor and development issues. The Platform met with NORAD on May 12 in Oslo and voiced concern that unless… More

New Off The Beach website launched!

Log on to our new websitehttp://www.offthebeach.org/ and sign our petition to help us get shipbreaking off the beach!  You can also download our Off the Beach! report, follow the activities of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform on social media and learn about the four fatal… More

NGOs call on Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik to fix “broken” shipbreaking legislation

On Tuesday, February 8th 2011, the European Union Commissioner for Environment, Janez Potočnik, gave a keynote speech at the launch of the BROKEN photo exhibition organised by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and hosted by The Centre. The exhibition features photographs by Saiful Huq Omi,… More

Finland Permits Illegal Export of Hazardous Waste

Sources recently confirmed that the vessel formerly known as the Onyx (recently re-named Kaptain Boris) has steered towards the shipbreaking beaches of Pakistan, Bangladesh or India for breaking in contravention of the Basel Convention and European Waste Shipment Regulation. The Finnish Environmental Institute… More

Bangladesh bans toxic ships

NGOs call on the EU to support new environmental standards 24 February 2010 (Brussels, Belgium) – Non-governmental organisation applaud Bangladesh for implementing the High Court Order banning toxic ships from entering the country’s maritime territory. At present, all ships destined for breaking in… More

UK called upon to halt export Southampton toxic tanker

7 More Workers Dead on South Asian Shipbreaking Beaches 5 August 2009 – The NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, a coalition of environmental, human rights and labour organizations, sent a letter to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs today calling on the… More

The Captain needs to take the wheel

NGOs call for urgent action for Europe to move beyond “business as usual” approach of IMO to solve global shipbreaking crisis. 20 November 2008 – A new European Commission strategy for the dismantling of end-of-life ships threatens to drift into dangerous waters unless… More

The European Parliament calls for urgent action! Resolution on the Green Paper on Better Ship Dismantling

21 May 2008 – Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) adopted, in plenary, on 21st May 2008, a non-legislative resolution on the European Commission’s Green Paper on Better Ship Dismantling (COM(2007)0269). The resolution was based on opinions prepared by the Environment, Industry and… More