SINGLE-HULLED oil tankers will be banned from European waters if the European
Commissioner for Transport, Loyola de Palacio, gets her way. The move follows
the wreck of the tanker Erika, which dumped 10 000 tonnes of fuel oil off the
French coast in December.
France had threatened to go it alone and ban single-hulled tankers such as
the Erika. But now the European Commission is proposing to phase in a ban over
10 years, starting in 2005. Under the proposal, by 2015 all tankers in European
waters will have double hulls to help prevent them being holed and losing oil…
