EU to reinterpret sea law to confront Russia’s shadow fleet
Source: Euractiv
The EU is preparing to strike at Moscow’s shadow fleet and curtail its war revenue by applying existing international maritime law more forcefully, according to a draft declaration under negotiation amongst EU countries.
National capitals are drafting a joint interpretation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that would give national authorities more leeway to board vessels suspected of threatening underwater cables and pipelines.
Over the past year, a series of subsea sabotage incidents involving ships likely linked to Russia’s shadow fleet has highlighted Europe’s trouble in bringing suspects to justice.
A key issue for coastal states has been boarding vessels, conducting searches and detaining crews. Ships in the shadow fleet are know to use “falsified identities, minimal inspections and rapid ‘flag-hopping’ through permissive registries,” the European Policy Centre writes. Such practices make it harder for European authorities to establish a ship’s nationality — and determine whether it is part of Russia’s covert fleet.
Ships sailing without nationality “pose a particular risk”, EU countries write in the eight-page document seen by Euractiv.
They assert their right to board ships on the high seas or their own waters when “there is reasonable ground for suspecting that the vessel is without nationality” – effectively giving themselves license to board ships believed to be sailing with no flag, or with a fraudulent one.
Fourteen European countries have already aligned this past month behind the view that stateless ships include “those falsely claiming to fly a flag”, as is suspected for many vessels in the shadow fleet. Such ships, they argue, have no right to freedom of navigation.
At first glance, the declaration appears mainly to restate existing treaty provisions. In reality, the EU countries are spelling out their own interpretation – and doing so in unusually explicit language.
In an unprecedented public signal they warn Russia they are prepared to take further measures to protect their subsea critical infrastructure.
Russia’s shadow fleet is under renewed scrutiny, causing mounting concerns among EU governments. While Moscow is sanctioned by the EU to trade its oil under a specific price cap, it continues to ship oil worldwide on vessels registered under other flags – or under no flag at all – to evade restrictions and fuel the Kremlin’s war effort.
The EU’s latest sanctions package targets 117 oil tankers in Russia’s shadow fleet. Estimates put the size of the fleet somewhere between 600 and 1,400 ships.
The EU’s diplomatic service also proposed that any newly identified shadow-fleet vessels should be automatically placed on the EU sanctions list, avoiding delays while waiting for a new sanctions package.
New rules
EU countries say they are ready to amend national laws to better protect pipelines, cables and other infrastructure. They’ll also pledge to “step up efforts” to ensure all ships comply with reporting requirements – including full disclosure of identifying information. Some states, such as Denmark have already already beefed up their enforcement posture against the shadow fleet.
Beyond the EU, countries are pushing for new rules to protect undersea critical infrastructure. They talk about launching a “broad initiative to develop tools to address threats,” to be developed for instance at the UN or the International Maritime Organisation.
One person with knowledge of the talks said the goal was to adopt the document on Monday with diplomatic envoys gathered in Brussels.
However, the text still requires further work, as Portugal and Greece maintain reservations over several provisions, the introduction of the text reads.
(cp, aw)
The original article: belongs to Euractiv .
