DutchNews, February 7, 2017
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The Netherlands and
Belgium could prosecute dirty diesel exporters Trafigura and Vitol for
contravening international agreements, environmental law experts have told
Trouw.
The diesel, which is blended with sulphur and benzene in the ports of
Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp, is commonly sold to African countries by
European oil companies who are taking advantages of the weak fuel standards in
those countries, the experts say.
Swiss-based commodity traders Trafigura and
Vitol are responsible for 50% of dirty diesel exports.
There are no EU rules
banning such exports, but according to the Centre for International
Environmental Law (Ciel), the practice contravenes the 2005 Basel Convention
which says that the export of the fuel is illegal if countries themselves
prohibit the import of dangerous waste.
Ciel says this the case since most
African countries have signed the Bamako agreement (1991) which declares such
imports illegal.
‘Therefore the export from Belgium and the Netherlands of fuel
with a high sulphur content is in contravention of the Basel Convention,’ Trouw
quotes the report as saying.
Ciel’s lawyers say the export of dirty diesel is
also in breach of human rights because the Netherlands and Belgium both signed
up to a UN agreement which obliges them to respect people’s right to health.
Sulphur
Dirty diesel can contain up to two hundred times the amount of sulphur
allowed in Europe.
Milieudefensie spokesman Bram van Liere, said he expects
that minister Lilianne Ploumen, who called the practice ‘scandalous’, will now
prosecute the two oil companies ‘with the tools we have given her’.
The Ciel
report, which was commissioned by Swiss NGO Public Eye and Dutch environmental
group Milieudefensie, was sent to parliament on Monday.
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