Editorial 07/05

July 15th, 2005 by JCB
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EDITORIAL

At the time of writing this editorial the EU is in turmoil following the rejection of the proposed constitution. Having been over in France at the time the electorate decided “Non” it was interesting to note that almost immediately the unelected and unaccountable Commissioners decided that because the vote had not gone as anticipated then it should be ignored and that ratification should continue regardless! This arrogant attitude reveals the detachment of the Commissioners from the reality of the situation that many of the arguments that convinced the French and Dutch to vote against the constitution were based on concerns that the Commissioners were becoming too powerful and ignoring fundamental democratic principles.

For pilots such rejection of democracy has been in evidence since the MEPs and

the EU Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the Ports Directive and the

Commissioners decided to ignore the reasoning and re-introduce it again virtually unchanged as PP2 in anticipation that they would be able to force it through with the votes from the new member States. Fortunately the “No” vote has resulted in such antics being exposed to greater scrutiny and there are signs that in the face of potentially damaging headlines over threatened strike action in EU ports, when the Directive was re-submitted on the 15^th June, the Commissioners decided that the imperative need for this directive may not be so pressing after all and have accepted in principle that member states are best placed to decide their ports’ policy!

The UKMPA as part of the EMPA lobby group were present in Brussels and the safety arguments against PP2 have been coherently presented and should this directive be finally buried then your subscriptions will have helped to defeat the greatest threat to pilots’ livelihoods since the 1987 Pilotage Act.

John Clandillon-Baker

Following my April 2005 editorial, I received some feedback questioning the validity and accuracy of my statement regarding the out of court settlement between Milford Haven and the International Oil Protection Compensation Fund 1971. Although I

am a volunteer editor with a zero research budget (cue for sympathetic violins!) I do try to ensure accuracy and in this case the source of the information was a press release from the IOPCF which can be read (and is well worth reading!) in full at the

following web address:

 

www.iopcfund.org/pr-pdf/sea_empress.pdf