ANOTHER BROADSIDE

Exclusionary offences include counterfeiting, identification fraud, drug possession or trafficking and unlawful gun possession – these are to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. However, offences such as assault and other violence related or robbery convictions are not considered to compromise the integrity of the supply chain. It is a practical measure to exclude these offences; if they were not, one government official noted, “we would probably lose 20% of the workforce.”

A draft report by EU parliamentary coordinator Georg Jarzembowski removes the self-handling part of the Bill, leaving a text which deals with authorisations for port service providers. Without it, the Bill resembles the version rejected in 2003 by the assembly.

Jarzembowski argues that authorisations should be optional and not compulsory, handing member states the opportunity to ignore swathes of the legislation altogether.