Member States Push Back on Adding Two Indian Yards to the EU List

The European Commission's proposal to add two Indian recycling yards to the list of European approved facilities is running into resistance from several member states, including the Netherlands.

Ingvild Jensen, director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform in Brussels, said the proposal has met opposition among governments and that the timetable is now short. "The member states have the last word in this matter and want to discuss it this month," she said.

The proposal, published as part of a draft implementing decision, would add Shree Ram Vessel Scrap and Shree Ram Shipping Industries, and YSI Recyclers, all located in Alang, to the sixteenth update of the European List of ship recycling facilities. The Commission's assessment concludes that the two facilities meet the requirements of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. The accompanying draft annex identifies both as using the beaching method.

That method is the substance of the dispute. Beaching means dismantling ships after running them aground on intertidal mudflats, and campaigners argue it makes full containment of oil residues, heavy metals and other pollutants impossible. Approving beaching yards, on the NGO's argument, would represent a policy shift that weakens the intent of a regulation written to ensure that EU-flagged tonnage is recycled at facilities protecting both workers and the environment.

The same draft removes several existing facilities from the list, including the Turkish yard Avsar Gemi Sokum after Commission inspectors found recurring deficiencies, the French recycler Recycleurs Bretons-Navaleo, Norway's Green Yard Kleven and the Turkish company Kiliclar. The current European List holds 41 approved facilities across EU member states, Norway, the United Kingdom, Turkiye and the United States.

Industry has taken the opposite position to the campaigners. Six shipping bodies have backed the inclusion of the two Indian yards, arguing that recognising capacity that already meets the standard is the way to keep EU-flagged ships inside a regulated system rather than pushing them towards reflagging.

The regulation binds only large seagoing vessels flying an EU flag, which is the limit of its reach and the reason the list matters commercially: a yard on it can take European tonnage, and a yard off it cannot. Environmental organisations say they will submit detailed comments challenging the inclusion before a final decision is adopted.