The European Union plans to negotiate with countries whose flags are flown by ships in Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cshadow fleet\u201d in order to gain preliminary rights to inspect these vessels, reports Politico, citing a document prepared by the EU External Action Service (EEAS) for a meeting of EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\n
The document states that foreign-flagged ships transporting Russian oil pose threats to the environment, maritime safety, and critical infrastructure, and could also be used \u201cas platforms for hybrid attacks against EU territory,\u201d reports DW.<\/p>\n
In some cases, such ships have already been suspected of serving as launch platforms for Russian drones likely used to surveil and destabilize civilian airports in Europe, Politico notes. The publication previously reported that Russia\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d may account for up to 17% of all tankers worldwide.<\/p>\n
According to Politico, the EU is already in contact with \u201cpriority countries\u201d that provide services to the shadow fleet. Moreover, the bloc \u201cintends to use various tools\u201d to encourage these countries to deregister shadow fleet ships subject to EU sanctions. For example, Panama\u2014the world\u2019s largest ship registry\u2014has reportedly agreed to deregister vessels under EU sanctions and recently decided to halt registration of ships over 15 years old, the EEAS notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Union plans to negotiate with countries whose flags are flown by ships in Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cshadow fleet\u201d in order to gain preliminary rights to inspect these vessels, reports Politico, citing a document prepared by the EU External Action Service (EEAS) for a meeting of EU foreign ministers. The document states that foreign-flagged ships […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n