Committee backs stricter maritime pollution law

The European parliament's environment committee has proposed minor changes to draft legislation that would criminalise the most serious breaches of EU maritime pollution law.  The recommendations will be forwarded to the transport committee, which is leading parliament discussions on the issue.     

The proposed amendments are contained in a non-binding resolution adopted by the environment committee on Wednesday.  In the most significant change, the committee proposed to criminalise incidents that occur as a result of "negligence" rather than "serious negligence" as proposed by the commission (EED 11/03/08).