Denmark’s Environmental Minister came under fire last week for failing to provide concrete answers to questions Maersk’s end-of-life vessels. The long list of questions had been drafted two months earlier, prompted by the revelations of Maersk’s shipbreaking practices in South Asia by the Danish investigative journalists, Danwatch, and the daily newspaper Politiken. All opposition parties called on the Danish Government to ensure that Maersk’s vessels cannot be broken down in beaching yards.
According to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, instead of answering the questions directly however, Minister Larsen ‘lacks political direction on ship recycling’ as he simply read prepared answers and paraphrased the Hong Kong Convention, quoting technical details and the obligation to follow the law.
If ships were broken on beaches in Denmark there would be an uproar, the MPs stated. They asked the Minister to outline how he thought safe working conditions and protection from pollution could ever be ensured when dismantling a vessel in the intertidal zone of a beach, and clearly requested the Minister to provide strong political support to end beaching.
To all the questions and comments, the Minister however repeatedly appealed to his ignorance about the shipbreaking industry and to the literal text of the EU guidelines under the Ship Recycling Regulation, NGO Shipbreaking Platform said.
“It is shocking that the Minister gave no political comment or direction, but rather only contained a copy-pasted quotation fed to him by Maersk. It reveals the lack of political backbone when we see that Maersk is in such a powerful position to issue statements on behalf of the Danish government and that the Minister seems to believe this is acceptable,” said Ingvild Jenssen, Policy Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
Source: NGO Shipbreaking Platform