Replay of the webinar held on 28 September in association with the National Maritime Foundation (NMF)
EU CRIMARIO and National Maritime Foundation speakers have presented oil spill case studies for drawing lessons learnt and discussing with participants from the potential improvements in terms of regional cooperation, liabilities, MDA. Dr Saurabh Thakur, NMF Associate Fellow, explained the impact of major marine pollution incidents in South Asia, especially oil spills caused by the accidents of MV Wakashio in Mauritius and X-Press Pearl off SriLanka. He highlighted the various gaps in conventions and liability issues. Andrew Mallia, CRIMARIO Law enforcement expert, explained in detail the sequence of events that led to the Erika oil spill, off France coastline in 1999. He emphasized that lessons learnt from the incident are still not being duly implemented. Discussions with the participants focused in questioning the different responsabilities, and the ways to better cooperate at regional level to both prepare for and mitigate such serious accidents. In his opening remarks, Olivier Bézier, CRIMARIO law enforcement & capacity building manager reminded CRIMARIO objectives in line with the recent EU Indo-Pacific strategy and the key partnership with NMF to enhance together capacity building activities. In his closing remarks, Captain Sarabjeet Parmar, NMF Executive Director, emphasized the need for improving legislative responses, preparation and mitigation of marine pollution and raised the issue of ports of refuge.