The European Parliament’s environment committee had originally called for a full moratorium on drilling.
However, when their non-legislative report was sent to the full parliament last week, MEPs supported an amendment tabled by Conservative MEP for Scotland, Struan Stevenson, which removed calls for a halt to drilling.
EU energy commissioner Oettinger had originally indicated that he would propose a full and compulsory moratorium, but he has backed down and said that any ban would be voluntary at the behest of national governments but that the ‘precautionary principle’ should be applied to ‘complex’ new projects.
Conservative energy spokesman Giles Chichester said that there is no need for a moratorium on drilling in EU waters, and there will have to be firm evidence to the contrary before any consideration be given to requesting one.
"This should be an opportunity to review our own procedures and standards of safety and liability but European offshore drilling does have a better track record than in the Gulf of Mexico and that needs to
be taken into consideration too," Chichester said.
