More than ten months after sharp criticism from the State Auditors, Denmark still lacks a marine environmental response that meets the law and international obligations. And despite statements from Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen (V) that a plan to mitigate the problems was in the works, nothing has happened politically.
This is the conclusion of the National Audit Office, which oversees public authorities, in a new memo that follows up on a report from January. Here, a study showed that the response cannot handle all types of pollution required by law. And the capacity is not sufficient. Furthermore, the emergency response cannot act quickly enough.
- The State Auditors take it very seriously that the Ministry of Defence is thereby exposing the Danish marine environment to an unnecessary risk of pollution accidents, wrote the State Auditors.
At the time, Troels Lund Poulsen said that the ministry had "initiated an investigation into the possibilities for mitigating the problems with the current marine environmental response". This work was expected to be completed in March. In a statement to the National Audit Office's report, the minister stated that a decision on the marine environmental response could be made before the summer of 2024. This was later postponed to September 2024.
However, at the end of August, the marine environmental response got a new home when the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Response, headed by Torsten Schack Pedersen (V), was established.
But he has not finished his work either.
- The Minister of Public Security and Emergency Preparedness states that more time is still needed to prepare a thorough decision proposal regarding the handling of marine environmental emergency preparedness, which can be discussed in the conciliation circle. The National Audit Office does not find this satisfactory, the memorandum states.
- The Minister does not state when a decision proposal is expected to be completed so that it can be discussed in the conciliation circle, it further states.
The Ministry of Defence's emergency preparedness primarily consists of four environmental ships. In 1996, it was assessed that the ships were obsolete. However, new ships will not be able to fully take over the emergency response until 2032 at the earliest, the Ministry of Defence has previously assessed. And therefore a solution is needed until then.
According to DanPilot, which is the state pilot in Denmark, around 70,000 ships sail through the Great Belt and Øresund annually. And because of narrow passages and shallow areas, there is a risk that ships may collide or run aground in the busy waters.
Most recently, in October 2023, a ferry ran aground off the southeast of Sweden. It leaked large amounts of oil. The largest oil spill in Denmark occurred in 2001, when a tanker and a cargo ship collided, which meant that 2,000 tons of oil flowed into the Baltic Sea. This cost the lives of 20,000 birds at Falster.
jel /ritzau/
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