Maritime agency extends its role

Europe’s Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is to be given new powers to deal with major pollution incidents such as oil spills.

Under an agreement forged by EU transport ministers on Friday, EMSA will be able to rent expensive oil cleaning ships capable of tackling marine pollution in high seas.

However, the agency will not be allowed to extend its new powers to anti-terrorist activities.

Under the original plans, the responsibilities of the agency - which at present deals solely with marine safety issues - were to be extended to include security roles.

But France and Britain had reservations about extending the remit to cover anti- terrorist security measures which it argued should be left under the control of member states.

Under an Italian presidency compromise, national governments agreed to limit the agency's power to providing the technical assistance in security issues, and allowing national port authorities to maintain authority in this field.

The regulation, which comes under the scrutiny of the European Parliament in co-decision procedure, will be debated in February 2004.

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