MEPs seek tougher safety rules on offshore energy

Report calls for licences linked to inspections; move follows last year’s Gulf of Mexico spill.

MEPs are to call for tougher EU rules on the safety of offshore oil and gas drilling operations at their plenary session in Strasbourg on 12-15 September.

On Tuesday (13 September), they are expected to back a report drafted by Vicky Ford, a UK Conservative MEP, which seeks more rigorous rules on liability for breaches of safety and accidents linked to offshore oil and gas operations. It asks the EU to promote “the highest safety and environmental standards” in all offshore activities.

Ford said rules being drafted by the European Commission should “provide clarity regarding liability”. The report, approved by the European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee in July, recommends that all drilling licence applications be made conditional on regular on-site inspections.

Applicants should face tougher environmental impact assessments, the report says. It also urges the widening of the scope of the EU’s polluter-pays and liability rules beyond inland waterways, to include all marine waters. The committee rejected calls for the creation of a European body to regulate offshore operations.

The report aims to influence a proposal being drafted by Günther Oettinger, the European commissioner for energy, on tougher safety and environmental rules for offshore drilling in the wake of last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Last October, Oettinger promised to deliver the first-ever EU legislative proposals on oil platforms, to allay concerns that EU regulation was not strong enough to prevent or deal with a similar spill in EU waters. The Commission is expected to present its plans in mid to late October.

Raw materials

During the plenary session, MEPs are also expected to endorse a call for a more robust policy on raw materials.

Reinhard Bütikofer, a German Green MEP who drafted the Parliament’s position on the nascent EU raw materials strategy, has recommended that EU member states and the Commission co-ordinate more closely on the subject.

Bütikofer called on the Commission to create an “interdepartmental” raw-materials group, mirroring similar measures taken in France and the United States, to ensure secured supplies of materials in the EU. The report also urges the EU to start “raw-materials diplomacy” with resource-rich countries in Africa and with China to promote a sustainable level of supply to European industry.

? MEPs are also expected to approve changes to the rules that govern Frontex, the EU’s border management agency, and to review how the EU’s counter-terrorism policy has operated since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

Debates will also be held on the EU’s energy market, the eurozone debt crisis, the Middle East peace process, Syria and Libya.

Bronislaw Komorowski, Poland’s president, will address MEPs on Tuesday.

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