EU-Turkey project to improve handling of dangerous goods at sea

The meeting, which hosted top officials from Turkey, Lithuania, Italy and the Netherlands, kicked off the “Improvement of maritime safety regarding the handling of dangerous goods at ports and coastal facilities” project.

The project will be executed under the framework of the EU’s twinning instrument, which has aims to boost cooperation between states and the implementation and enforcement of EU legislation.

The deputy undersecretariat of the Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communications, Özkan Poyraz, said Turkey has become a transit hub for ships carrying large consignments of goods from the Far East, which are then distributed in Turkey to smaller ships bound for different destinations.  
    
“This kind of big operation is carried out in Turkey. And it will continue this way. Since there is loading and unloading in our seaports, the risk regarding the transport of dangerous goods doubles,” Poyraz said.
     
Participating countries envisaged improvements in four key areas as outcomes of the project, including the establishment of a long-term action plan to secure the handling of dangerous goods and the harmonization of EU legislation governing these operations.

Training courses and the development of a new model to better monitor and control the transport of these materials were also key measures under discussion.