European Parliament
Sterckx (ELDR ),
rapporteur
(NL)
Mr President, I should like to ask the Commissioner a question in connection with what she said a moment ago about the
Viking
. As far as I know, the
Viking
was not denied access to a port of refuge. The ship sailed to Rotterdam because it is a double-hulled ship that had sunk deeper because the double hull had flooded. The ship then sailed under its own steam to Belgian waters, which, strictly speaking, is already against the rules, and was denied access to Zeebrugge and Ostend. The owner refused to conclude a contract with the salvager. So there was a problem. This is the information I have. It would perhaps be useful if a temporary committee were to institute inquiries into incidents that have not resulted in disasters. After all, we could learn a great deal from them about how we should organise things more effectively. However, I think that the Belgian authorities, in the case involving the
Viking
, did not make the kind of errors that we can observe in the present case.

