EU Audit Finds Polluting Ships “Slip Through the Net” with Lax Enforcement

Despite significant resources and financial investments, the European Court of Auditors found in a new report that ships continue to pollute EU maritime waters with shortcomings in the tracking and enforcement. The auditors are calling for further steps and possible enhancements in the environmental action program to meet the EU’s zero pollution ambition.

The audit focused on ship-sourced pollution and the more than a decade of regulations from the EU. It examined EU actions between January 2014 and September 2024. They report that €216 million in funding was provided between 2014 and 2023 focusing on elements such as port waste reception facilities, collection of fishing nets, and research. While it concluded the EU’s efforts were well-designed and continue to improve, it said implementation had weakened and that the efforts of the 22 member states “is far from satisfactory.”

“Pollution at sea caused by ships remains a major problem, and despite a number of improvements in recent years, EU action is not really able to steer us out of troubled waters,” said Nikolaos Milionis, the ECA Member responsible for the audit. “In fact, with over three-quarters of European seas estimated to have a pollution problem, the zero-pollution ambition to protect people’s health, biodiversity, and fish stocks is still not within sight.”

The auditors found that EU countries underuse the tools provided for them such as those from the European Maritime Safety Agency. As an example, they cited in 2022-2023 that the European Satellite Oil Monitoring Service identified a total of 7,731 possible spills in the EU. Yet, they found that member states failed to act and only confirmed seven percent of the cases. 

They also said that member states do not carry out enough preventative inspections of ships. They reported that states failed to meet their mandatory target rates for inspections and that the penalties for polluters also remain low. 

“Actions to prevent, tackle, track, and penalize various types of ship-source pollution are not up to the task,” the auditors warned. They concluded that neither the European Commission nor the member states fully track the EU money used to combat seawater pollution. As a result of the lapses in the efforts, the auditor said “the actual amount of oil spills, contaminants, and marine litter from ships remains largely unknown, as does the identity of polluters.”

Among the specific shortcomings in the regulations, they pointed to the recycling obligations for end-of-life vessels. They highlight that one in every seven ships in the world was flying an EU flag in 2022, but the figure for end-of-life ships was 50 percent lower as owners continue to circumvent recycling regulations by adopting non-EU flags before disposing of these ships. The European Commission at the end of February also cited this issue saying it would be enhancing its efforts to enforce the rules and adapt as the Hong Kong Convention comes into force this year.

The audit is also critical of the handing of containers lost overboard. “EU rules on containers lost at sea are far from watertight,” the audit says. It highlights that there is no guarantee of reporting and that few containers are recovered. 

The recommendations call for improving the monitoring and effectiveness of pollution alert tools as well as monitoring member states to confirm they are performing mandatory checks. They said that enhancing monitoring and reporting would be a key step along with better tracking of EU-funded projects.

These findings they suggest should be used to possibly enhance legislation and the previous eighth environmental action plan which was released in 2022. The ambition is for zero pollution of the EU’s waters by 2030.

The complete report is available for download online.