MPs urged the Greek Prime Minister to take action against the Russian Female Fleet
Selling old ships to Russia is “Business practice that is completely irresponsible”, a group of parliament members have told the Prime Minister of Greek.
A group of European Parliament members had written a joint letter urged by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to take “all the necessary steps” to block new sales of Greece ships to Russia, warning this transaction to help Kremlin maintain its shadow fleet and to dismiss the G7 price capiten.
MEP also demanded further steps to curb the transfer of ships, the technique used to hide the origin of merchandise, and to prevent Greek companies from transporting Russian oil.
The letter was passed by 36 members of parliament from various countries and political parties and sent to the Prime Minister’s office on Friday.
“These actions are very important not only to limit Russia’s finances to continue their war against Ukraine, but also to prevent environmental threats and security, where your country, as a maritime country, has been directly exposed,” wrote parliament members.
“We expect concrete results.”
MPs quoted a new study by Brookings, an American think tank, showing that more than half of the ships used by the Russian shadow fleet came from Western European owners, with Greece “so far the most frequent sellers”. This finding is consistent with previous research by the European parliamentary research service.
“Such an irresponsible action, which is aimed at financial benefits, not only directly contributes directly to the suffering of the people of Ukraine, but also damage European and Greek security, including causing environmental hazards,” said Petras Aušrevičius, a member of the Litral Lithuanian Liberal Parliament who promoted a joint letter.
The Kyriakos Mitsotakis office did not immediately react to the letter.
A spokesman said: “The Greek authorities do everything to ensure compliance with sanctions and to prevent dodging from sanctions in their area.”
Greece, a coastal country with a strong maritime industry, has been under the supervision of a role that is traditionally played in the Russian fossil fuel trade. While this activity has significantly ended because of EU sanctions, it has not been completely lost. To this day, member countries are still allowed to buy Russian LNG.
A fleet that is difficult to catch
The shadow fleet mentioned refers to the ship used by Kremlin to avoid price limits on Russian oil worn by Western allies to reduce the financing of Ukraine full scale invasion. International oil and gas sales are the most important source of income for the Moscow budget.
The fleet consists of an uncursed old tanker that performs deceptive practices, including transmitting falsified data, turning off transponders to be invisible and make several transfer ships to hide their oil barrel origins. By doing that, the ship can escape the control of G7 and therefore close the price.
Political pressure to crack down on fleet has increased from time to time after a series of incidents in the Baltic Sea, where the ship operated by Russia is accused of sabotage of underwater cables.
In several sanctions packages, the European Union has been blacklisted in 153 ships owned by a shadow fleet. Everything was rejected access to the EU port and EU services.
“We continue to analyze data and proposals from member countries for the possibility of a list of ships in the future,” said EU spokesman on Friday, adding that each additional list must be approved unanimously by the council.
The appointment is expected to continue in the next restriction round, which is already in manufacturing and can be presented to the Foreign Minister in May.
Apart from various sanctions, the block has not introduced a direct ban on sales or transfer of ownership of tankers to Russia. Conversely, the company and EU individuals are forced to tell this transaction if the potential buyer is connected to Russia. Sales are prohibited unless the national authority provides authorization.
“The appointment system that we have done makes the ship much more attractive even in the international market, so this increases the cost for Russia to use these ships, and that means that they cannot operate in their normal business as usual,” said the same EU spokesman.
Source: Euronews
