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Matthew Vella
Marc Bonello was a wanted man in France, but today he has been elevated to a distinguished member of the French order.
The man whom French magistrate Dominque de Tallancé wanted arrested to answer for the disastrous oil spillage after the Maltese-flagged vessel Erika broke into two off the coast of Brittany, is now a Knight of the Maritime Merit of the French Republic.
The honour was conferred to him by outgoing ambassador Patrick Chrismant on Bastille Day on 14 July, the French national day.
Attempts to contact the magistrate who waged a campaign against the Malta Maritime Authority’s chairman and executive director Lino Vassallo were futile as de Tallancé is on vacation until the end of the month.
De Tallancé had ordered Bonello and Vassallo to appear in front of the French courts after French civic groups, and families of small entrepreneurs, asked the courts to decide whether the Maltese authorities are culpable for the oil disaster that left hundreds of French families without an income.
Although Brittany is hundreds of miles away from Malta, emotions run high in this windswept part of France, where socialist MEP Bernard Poignant has been at the forefront of a campaign to raise awareness about the Erika disaster, calling for compensation for the victims of the oil spill.
The affected coast was home to thousands of wild seabirds, miles of golden sandy beaches and the richest oyster farms in Western Europe.
The Erika, a Maltese-registered oil tanker, was a single hulled and ageing vessel when in 1999 it broke in half off the Breton coast losing tonnes of oil which left the rich crustacean beds completely devastated in this otherwise popular tourist destination.
Though the maritime authority denied any responsibility for the accident, it later became clear that the Maltese authorities did little in the way of monitoring when it came to their own flagships, depending mostly on third parties to verify that standards were adhered to and knowing all too well that the Maltese flag is no more than a flag of convenience.
Bonello was one of the three Maltese nationals to be decorated on Bastille Day, with an award that followed a period of tension in Franco-Maltese relations over the 1999 Erika disaster.
But the French recognised Bonello’s efforts to improve the security of the Maltese shipping fleet, to enable the island’s removal from the International Maritime Organisation’s blacklist.
Malta’s reputation as a flag of convenience continued to attract notoriety following the Erika disaster, which was the catalyst for more stringent regulations at the Malta Maritime Authority. Even Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi joked during his EU presidency with reporters that Malta should be given responsibility for oil tanker safety, on speaking over a proposal for prime ministers to be represented on the Commission.
The authority’s chairman came under unexpected praise from the former French ambassador to Malta, Didier Destremau, the outspoken emissary who took Malta to task over its environmental record, even pushing for the MMA to make necessary changes in its ship registration procedures.
“He is a very reliable and professional man, and I also think he did a good job on the question of ship registration,” Destremau told MaltaToday, who is today head of Caritas International’s arms control campaign, and is busy preparing himself for the publication of a book about Malta.
“It was hard to change certain habits, but along with Lino Vassallo, he managed to place emphasis on quality rather than quantity when it came to ship registration, with his smooth diplomatic action. It is a recognition by the French republic of his good work – after all Bonello himself was not personally responsible for the Erika disaster, so I don’t think it is ironic.”
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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