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The government’s escape from liability in the Erika case made the headlines this week. We were invited to sigh in relief that our public finances will not have to bear the burden of damages estimated to be in excess of 1Bn euros. Hooray.
As a matter of fact there never was a risk. Malta is a sovereign state and is not subject to the jurisdiction of any foreign national court of law. No Maltese court would ever have the audacity to summon a foreign government official except as a voluntary witness. The fact that Maltese public officials were summoned to appear before a French court was a national affront. Our officials should have refused to appear before the enquiring magistrate and should never have needed to plead before him much less to make an appeal to the French Court of Appeal. The much hailed escape is in fact a national humiliation.
On the other hand we should have been prepared to offer the French enquiring magistrate every assistance in establishing the liability for a disaster that ruined the income of thousands of families and destroyed miles of Breton shores.
In the immediate aftermath to the disaster both government and opposition closed ranks in an attempt to duck responsibility for the sinking of the lethal rust bucket. There was legitimate resentment to the French official and press double standard in pointing to Malta’s flag of convenience status. We made ourselves ridiculous in trying to show that we were not, when in fact we should have pointed out that the French operate their own flag of convenience jurisdictions. Malta assumed that it could not counter the jingoism of the French press.
Ignoring all the tangled mess in the PR war, the Maltese Greens organized their first international action sending a delegation of civil society volunteers to help in the clean-up. In the face of the catastrophic dimensions of the disaster it was nothing more than a symbolic gesture of solidarity but it was greatly appreciated by our Breton hosts. There was precious little we could do except express our solidarity but the Bretons took our meaning and a bond was formed at the grassroots level while the jingoism raged in the media.
Every contact we made with the Maltese authorities at the time gave evidence of panic and denial. The official reaction was to avoid responsibility, to insist on official correctness and play down the matter as far as possible. It was a major mistake. The Erika had sunk but would not disappear from public view in a hurry. Denial would not make it all go away. Five years after she still makes the news.
The politicians relied on the bureaucrats and the bureaucrats did what bureaucrats do everywhere. We tried to pass the buck. It was in Malta’s interest to do exactly the opposite. There was no way that we could ever become liable in damages. No flag state has ever been liable for anything of the sort. However we should have gone on the offensive.
The civil society volunteers from Malta established an important bridgehead which officialdom was unable to exploit. We established the positive and appreciative response of the Breton population. The Maltese government could have embarrassed its French counterpart by offering assistance. Tiny Malta could have put the bungling behemoth to shame. We could have won over the French press by being seen to be doing our utmost. The day we are struck by our Erika, the French would not be able to hold back any help they can offer. Perhaps the French would not have been so offensive as to summon a Maltese government official before a French court.
As a nation we concentrated on squirming out of our financial liability when there was none instead of seeking to recover our reputation which was definitely and inevitably tarnished in the process. The only spark of magnanimity was displayed by volunteers from Birdlife, Graffitti and Alternattiva Demokratika who made the trip to Brittany to meet the gaze of their French colleagues swamped by an oily tide. It is thanks to them alone that in Brittany the Maltese flag is not only a symbol of unnatural disaster.
The Maltese Erika policy has not yet been abandoned. The justification for Malta’s opposition to the new EU rules on marine pollution was the safeguard of our income from ship registration. If the EU tightens its rules unilaterally, Malta’s massive fleet could shift to another jurisdiction.
Here Malta has a good case but not because of the money. Our government income from ship registration is not worth a fraction of the damage we suffer from the inevitable consequences shipping disasters. There will be another Erika and another and another. We have the fifth largest fleet in the world.
The case for opposing the EU legislation should have been based on the assistance flag states such as Malta and Cyprus can offer the EU in achieving an improvement of the global maritime regime. Malta and Cyprus must retain their fleets to retain their clout within the International Maritime Organization which makes the rules for the world’s shipping. This is where we have something extraordinary to offer the EU. Through us the EU can push for the reduction of Erika disasters worldwide and not only on its own doorstep.
Malta can repeat its almost forgotten feat of introducing the concept of the Common Heritage of Mankind as far back as the 1960s through the Law of the Sea conferences. It remains a foundation stone for much of international environmental legislation pointing the way to common rights and responsibilities to the biosphere.
The income from ship registration also counting the fees to accounting and law firms, is outweighed by far by the potential for losses in our tourism sector from Erika repeats. In order to justify the risk we should go much further than defending the status quo. As a nation with one of the major fleets in the world we have a major role to play and we have to be seen to playing it to the full.
With a new pipeline from Russian oilfields to the Adriatic our exposure to oil pollution disasters will increase spectacularly. When, not if, our very own Erika founders offshore we have to been seen to have done our utmost to avert such disasters not only for ourselves but for all others. Otherwise we will be seen to have had our just deserts.
harry.vassallo@alternattiva.org.mt
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