The Community Information System for the Control and Reduction of Pollution by the Spillage of Hydrocarbons and Other Harmful Substances at Sea

Abstract

The Council of Ministers of the EEC adopted Decision 86/85/EEC on the 6th March 1986 establishing a Community Information System for the control and reduction of pollution caused by the spillage of hydrocarbons and other harmful substances at sea.

The paper gives a short introduction to the background of the Decision and explains the aims of the system, which forms a part of the Community action plan.

The information system when fully developed will include :

• a list of national and joint plans for combating pollution caused by the spillage of hydrocarbons at sea, comprising a brief description of the content of the plans and naming the authorities responsible for them;

• an inventory of resources for combating pollution of the sea by hydrocarbons;

• a compendium of hydrocarbon properties and their behaviour and of methods of treatment and end uses of mixtures of water-hydrocarbon-solid matter recovered from the sea or along the coast;

• an inventory of resources for intervention in the event of a spillage at sea of harmful substances other than hydrocarbons.

In addition, the Commission will gradually compile, in the light of experience, a compendium of information concerning the properties and behaviour of harmful substances or groups of harmful substances other than hydrocarbons.

The different parts of the system are described as well as the state of development of the different parts.