MEP Sara Matthieu (Greens/EFA) presented the objection in the ENVI Committee, which was also co-signed by Bruno Tobback (S&D), Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (Renew) and Anja Hazekamp (The Left) © European Parliament

On 4 November, a large majority of the Members of the European Parliament in the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety of the European Parliament (ENVI Committee) voted against the inclusion of two beaching shipbreaking yards in the 16th List of European ship recycling facilities. These two yards, Shree Ram and YSI Recyclers, located in Alang-Sosiya, India, have been preliminarily approved by the European Commission to recycle EU-flagged ships.  

Through their objection, MEPs argue that yards using the so-called “beaching method”, i.e. scrapping ships on tidal mudflats, cannot be accepted on the EU List as they do not meet EU standards for environmental and workers protection [1]. The ENVI Committee is very clear in its wording: “including a facility that practises the beaching method for the dismantling of end-of-life ships in the European List would be against the intention and the letter of the [Ship Recycling Regulation]”. At beaching yards, the primary cutting of the ships takes place directly in the intertidal zone, rendering it impossible to control and contain pollution. Environmental monitoring reports from the beaching yards reveal high pollution levels for several toxic substances found on end-of-life vessels, with levels having even increased since 2017 and 2020 for copper, chromium, cadmium and mercury, despite the decline of the number of ships broken in Alang-Sosiya since 2021.

The objection further argues that downstream waste management in Alang-Sosiya is not proven to meet standards broadly equivalent to the ones in the EU. Scrap steel typically goes to local re-rolling mills that have not been inspected or evaluated up against the Industrial Emmissions Directive. The Commission's own draft regulation of 18 September 2026 declines to authorise exports of ferrous and non-ferrous metal waste to India because of significant concerns about steel recycling there. A ship is a complex, coated and contaminated metal structure, far more hazardous than the sorted ferrous scrap that the Commission is proposing to ban for export to India.

Finally, the argument on expanding the listed capacity, often brought up by shipowners, is not a criterion listed in the EU SRR. The yards already on the EU List have a combined capacity of more than 2 million LDT, a capacity that would be sufficient to dismantle all EU-flagged and EU-owned ships sent for recycling in recent years. Including beaching yards would undermine responsible recyclers that have invested in meeting high environmental, health, safety and labour standards, aggravate the unfair competition they already face, and run against the EU’s own industrial objectives which have identified expanding European ship recycling capacity as strategic to secure material autonomy. 

The objection was supported by a wide coalition of stakeholders, including the steel industry, recycling industry, trade unions and environmental NGOs. It will be voted in plenary at the end of November this year.

The public consultation on the 16th edition of the European List ran from 22 July to 30 August 2026. NGO Shipbreaking Platform published a press release halfway through it to voice its concerns and submitted feedback to the consultation. The European steel and recycling sectors, trade unions, as well as environmental NGOs based in the EU and South Asia also submitted comments to the Public Consultation, sharing the concerns of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and calling for the European Commission to withdraw their proposal to include Indian beaching yards. On 21 September, the Ship Recycling Expert Group Committee met in a session open to Member States only. Several Member States echoed concerns raised in the Public Consultation. The European Parliament’s objection will now be voted in plenary, most likely at the end of November. The vote does not legally bind the European Commission to withdraw their proposal. It will be up to Member States to have the final word. Their vote should be planned in the upcoming month.