The French abestos carrier Clemenceau is back in the news.
PRESIDENT SIGNALS U-TURN FOR FRENCH ASBESTOS SHIP
PARIS February 15, 2006 (AFP) - French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday ordered the asbestos-lined warship Clemenceau back home after France's highest court blocked its transfer to India for scrapping.The French climbdown will be seen as a major victory for environmentalists... Accused of exporting its pollution to the developing world, the French government has been sorely embarrassed by the warship debacle...
"France must set the example and act with the greatest transparency" when disposing of used ships, Chirac said, calling for Europe to build up its own dismantling capabilities. He said a Europe-wide effort to set international norms for disposing of used ships abroad should include "respect for labour laws, workers' health and the environment".
Of course what Jack admonishes here -- transparency, respect of EU-style labor laws, concern for workers' health and the environment -- all these nice things were missing from France's disposition of the Clemenceau. When France fails leave it to Jack to lecture everyone else to do better.
CHIRAC IMAGE SINKS LOWER OVER WARSHIP DEBACLE
PARIS February 16, 2006 (AFP) - France's political opposition and media on Thursday called the debacle over the asbestos-lined warship Clemenceau a blow for France and a personal failure for President Jacques Chirac.Socialist Party leader François Hollande said the climb down was a "bitter setback" for Chirac, who was forced to order the battleship home after France's highest court called off its transfer to an Indian ship breaking yard over pollution fears. Calling the government's handling of the affair "improvised and rash", Hollande said on French radio that the U-turn "would be laughable were it not so sad for our country."
For Chirac, who has made frequent international appeals for the defence of the environment, to be seen as exporting France's pollution to the developing world has been particularly embarrassing.
"Fifteen months from the end of his mandate, Chirac's image sinks in the Indian Ocean," wrote the left-wing newspaper Libération in an editorial. "For someone who spends his time lecturing the rest of the planet on the environment ... this is a real ecological boomerang."
Libération and Le Parisien, as well as the conservative Le Figaro, predicted that the affair risked burying Alliot-Marie's chances of running for Chirac's succession in next year's presidential election. Alliot-Marie* insists the government acted responsibly, stripping out as much of the ship's asbestos as possible before sending it abroad — and has pointed out that it inherited the ship from the previous Socialist administration.
Mdm. le Ministre here argues that there is no meliorating continuity between successive administrations. Old problems from previous administrations just persist, incoming administrations are helpless. Helpless. The only spanner in Mdm. le Ministre's employment of this ancient political alibi is that her administration signed its second contract for the ship's dismantling on June 23, 2004 (SCMC: §II.15.6) and oversaw the contested abestos removal. This some two years after the Socialists were shown the door.
According to Béatrice Marre, the Parti Socialiste national secretary to the environment, the SDIC (Ship Decommissioning Industry Corporation), is a company created and incorporated in Panama specifically for the French government to contract with for the dismantling of the Clemenceau. (En réalité, le contrat a été passé par le gouvernement français avec cette société [SDIC], créée pour l’occasion.) SDIC sub-contracted with the French company Technopure for the decontamination of the ship. Technopure had no direct contract with the government.
Neither the SDIC's contract with the French government nor its sub-contract with Technopure have been made public, though Technopure has testified to its contractual obligations before India's Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes Management (SCMC).
The SCMC ruled for the French government on some procedural points, however the court remained confounded by the the French government's novel contractual arrangements by which it retains ownership of the Clemenceau but holds itself harmless for compliance, as well as several other irregularities:
§III.24. ... It is difficult to accept that the French government can simultaneously retain ownership of the hull and also make an outright sale of the vessel to a buyer who has now taken the vessel not only from the military yard at Toulon but out of French territory as well.§III.25. Shree Ram Vessel Scrap Pvt. Ltd [the Indian shipbreaking company contracted to receive and dismantle the Clemenceau] has submitted to the SCMC a copy of the contract signed between SDIC and itself. In this contract, SDIC is shown as registered in Panama . (Shree Ram, however, has also enclosed a certificate that shows the SDIC as registered in Paris.) It is not possible to confirm whether this is the same company that appears in the agreement with the French government (with an office in Hamburg , Germany) though one would naturally presume they are one and the same. In the contract, SDIC is shown as the seller (owner). In the contract, however, Shree Ram declares itself the buyer of the vessel. The agreement notes clearly that Shree Ram has "today [17th March 2004] bought the ex aircraft carrier Clemenceau." Interestingly, in the agreement, under the entry of port of registry, the item shows "ex French flag". If the flag is really “ex-French”, how indeed can the French government claim interest? If the vessel is carrying the flag of Panama , why is the French government represented before the SCMC?
...§III.27. ... A curious question to ask is if the French state has indeed sold the vessel, why is a company registered in Panama willing to spend 3 million euros to decontaminate the vessel in France, pay the cost of towing the vessel to Alang, pay the additional Suez canal charges of $1.3 million and then sign a contract with an Indian company for sale of a product which it does not own and lay itself open to a liability for deadly hazardous materials like waste asbestos and PCBs for the measly amount of 100,000 euros?
...§III.30. What perturbs the SCMC is the apparently careless and casual manner in which this matter of a hazardous waste inventory has been treated by the French Government. This is all the most [sic] surprising given the fact that the French Government is primarily required by law to generate an inventory of asbestos (at least) on board the ship when it rested at Toulon on French territory. ... In the light of these legal commitments on inventorisation required both by French regulations (and, we might add, the directions of the apex court dated 14.10.2003 also requiring an inventory of hazardous wastes), it is surprising that the vessel was allowed to leave French waters for its export to India without a detailed inventory.
...§III.31.4. From the presentations made by the French government, we find there are, at different times, different estimates given of the quantities of the asbestos on the Clemenceau. ...
§III.31.5. [An undated letter from the Chief of French Naval Staff to the Minister of Defence] indicates that the funnel (chimney) estimated at 60 tons was found on analysis to be of fibre glass and not of asbestos. Hence this quantity was removed from the total [ACM, scil., abestos containing material] quantity... No real evidence is provided for suddenly declaring the chimney as non-asbestos. The only two lab analysis reports made available to the Committee indicate the chimney was made of asbestos.
§III.31.6. Appearing before the SCMC, the French government made the rather startling claim that Technopure had actually removed 106 tons of ACM and not just 70 tons as claimed by the company. ...
§V.52-56 reject crucial French government depositions bearing on its responsibilities under the Basel Convention. And finally in §VII., the SCMC conclusively rules against France and finds it acting in bad faith:
§VI.63. ... Many end-of-life warships are said to be in search of ship-breaking yards. France alone has more than 46 warships awaiting destruction, a project held back because of heavy costs of asbestos decontamination. ... Sending such seriously contaminated vessels to India constitutes dumping of hazardous materials in India which is not permitted either by Indian law or international law.
...§VII.65. The Clemenceau’s import is of no special gain to either the country or its economy. It is largely an attempt by a developed country like France to wash its hands of a problem that has already become a major tragedy in that country itself. ...
§VII.66. By selling the vessel to SDIC for a mere 100,000 Euros, France has rid itself of a major environmental and public health problem. SDIC has little concern for either environment or public health: its interest in the Clemenceau is purely economic. ... Since the company is registered in Panama , it will not be able to meet any liability claims.
§VII.67. India, on the other hand, will be paying out a sum of 8 million Euros (in foreign exchange) to welcome a major liability, thus effectively assisting France to get rid of its liability by in fact funding the entire operation.
Sloppy contracts do not make themselves. And since the benefits in cost and convenience of the Clemenceau contract accrue almost solely to the French government, we suspect, not unreasonably, this was by the design of the French government. Although we are prepared to believe in the out-sized incompetence of this government, we do not believe the Jack pack just got lucky. On the contrary we contend France deliberately rigged this deal to side-step her legal obligations, happy to trash the environmental and humanitarian pieties she urges on others.
* Michèle Alliot-Marie, Minister of Defence and the dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™.
PFFT (What is this?): France on the cheap 5 | Rayonnement français 0
Bonjour,
Comment recevoir des leçons de morale sur le "Clem" de la part des USA ??
Eux qui , au mépris de toutes les règles coulent leurs porte-avions en plein mer !
Comment ne pas voir aussi ,avec la main de Greenpeace ,un complot de l'anglosphère contre la France ?
Good luck for your country in Irak !
M. AB/AY,
Ah, we don't imagine that you take lessons, moral or otherwise, from anyone. But it is not Pave that lectures France, it is the courts of India.
Plots. Conspiracies. Everywhere the world contrives to defeat France. How does France manage to muddle along?
As regards the Clemenceau, first, we commend you for a rare on-topic comment. But moral lessons from Pave are the least of your worries. A majority of your compatriots has been tricked by the worldwide Anglo-Saxon conspiracy into believing that France acted shamefully and stupidly in this business. Perhaps, like you, they have read our posts but, unlike you, they have a weakness for the facts.
Why you busy yourself here when it is your countrymen who are in need of your brave counsels is a mystery. You have your work cut out for you. Be gone. Go save France.
Good luck with your beguiled and faithless compatriots.
Regards,
DGB
As regards the Clemenceau, first, we commend you for a rare on-topic comment
Darn, that is funny! LOL.
And speaking of “off subject” comments, when M.AB/AY is finished saving France, maybe he could go save his fellow Chavistas in Venezuela. (Picture in your mind ABAY riding along like Don Quixote on a broken down horse.."Sancho!! Sancho! We must save France!")
The latest economic numbers have just come out….Seems that under the tutelage of their hero Chavez the number of Venezuelans living in poverty has risen 10 % since he took office in 1999.
Also during this time period, there has been a net loss of 7,000 business, and unemployment as gone up.
This is not a resounding confirmation of the “socialist economic model”. Increasing the dependence of the poor on govt handouts does not an economy make.
Bonjour,
1)Le délire sur le Clem est l'oeuvre de "Green Peace" dont la dénomination en langue yankee (vous reconnaissez votre langue quand même) dit assez quels sont ses maîtres.
2)Avez-vous "Green Peace" organisation """""""indépendante"""""" manifester quand les USA ont coulé des porte-avions en pleine mer ? Si oui dites-moi vite quand !
3)Une organisation écologiste indépendante, "Robin des Bois" a au contraire salué l' attitude très responsable de la France dans cette affaire (désamiantage soigneux) etc .Pour un temps encore malheureusement les médias à la solde des yankees empêchent toute réflexion raisonnable et font de l'agitation antifrançaise systématique en relayant leurs larbins comme "Green Peace". .Cela va changer (Télé Sur etc) par bonheur.
4)Les USA qui sont entre les mains d'un gang de pétroliers ultra-libéraux qui refusent avec obstination toute mesure écologique (Kyoto ,pollution automobile , saccage de l'Alaska etc ,etc) feraient mieux de se taire pudiquement sur ces sujets.
Good luck for your country in Irak !!!
Bonjour,
Where in God's name do you get this stuff from?
Really, where?
