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EU considering speeding up review of passenger ship safety laws
Jan 17, 2012, 15:40 GMT
Brussels - An ongoing review of European Union legislation on passenger ship safety may be speeded up in the wake of the accident off the Italian island of Giglio involving the Costa Concordia cruise liner, an official in Brussels said Tuesday.
'Well beyond this incident, the EU has been working for years' on the issue, the European Commission's spokeswoman on transport issues, Helen Kearns, told dpa.
Rules on the stability of ships may need to be 'reviewed or revised' in the wake of the technological advances in the sector, 'which are allowing the use of bigger boats,' Kearns said.
'We may decide to move ahead with some of that work a little more quickly,' she added.
Separately, an Italian member of the European Parliament called on the commission to order Italian authorities to ban large cruise ships from the Venice lagoon.
'An accident like the Concordia one would have a disastrous effect on Venice's delicate environment,' Andrea Zanoni said in a statement, in which he also urged the EU to regulate on the minimum distance large boats should keep from historical sites and protected nature spots.
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