List of ship recycling facilities: first renewals of inclusion for yards located outside the EU

Today, the European Commission adopted the 12^th edition of the European List of ship recycling facilities. The updated list renews the inclusion of two yards located in Türkiye and one yard located in the USA, after 5 years on the list. The Commission has also extended the date of expiry of inclusion of one listed yard located in Finland and five listed yards located in Norway. The new list furthermore removes three facilities located respectively in Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway because they are no longer in the ship recycling business. The European List now contains 45 ship-recycling facilities, including 35 yards in Europe (EU, Norway and UK), 9 yards in Türkiye and 1 yard in the USA. Several yards on the European List are capable of recycling of large vessels.

As part of the implementation of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, the Commission works on the monitoring of compliance of the yards on the European List with the conditions set out in EU legislation. In that context, the Commission carried out for the first time in October unannounced inspections in Turkish yards.

European ship owners possess around 30% of the world fleet in tonnage. Many of these ships are being dismantled outside the EU, mainly in South Asia, under conditions that are often harmful to workers’ health and the environment. Since 31 December 2018, the EU Ship Recycling Regulation has been requiring all large sea-going vessels sailing under an EU Member State flag to use an approved ship recycling facility included in the European List of ship recycling facilities.

Background

The European List is regularly updated to add further compliant facilities or to remove the ones that have ceased to comply. To be included in the European List, any ship recycling facility, irrespective of its location, has to comply with a number of safety and environmental requirements. For facilities located in the EU, competent national authorities must check that all the relevant conditions are met, and then inform the Commission that the facility should be listed. Ship recycling facilities located in third countries and intending to recycle ships flying a flag of a Member State have to apply to the Commission for inclusion in the European List. The Commission then evaluates and checks how these yards comply with the requirements in the Regulation and proposes their inclusion in the European List when these requirements are met.

Evaluation of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation

The Commission is carrying out the evaluation of the Ship Recycling Regulation. Stakeholders' consultations have been carried out and the results are expected to be published in the second quarter of 2024.

For More Information

• 12^th edition of the European List of ship recycling facilities
• Webpage on Ship Recycling including Map of the EU-listed yards