Call for Offshore Drilling Moratorium in EU

Oil-smudged Greenpeace activists await the arrival, in Brussels, of 18 CEOs from some of the world’s biggest oil companies attending a meeting with EU energy commissioner Günther Oettinger and environment commissioner Janez Potocnik. The group will discuss the future of offshore drilling in Europe. The activists hold up banners reading “STOP DEEP-SEA DRILLING” and call on oil companies to withdraw from deep-sea regions where oil spills cannot be controlled. Greenpeace supports commissioner Oettinger’s proposal voiced the previous week to introduce a de facto moratorium on deep-sea drilling in European waters until investigations into the causes of BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico have been completed and regulations adapted to take account of risks. The Commission, representatives of oil and gas companies, and national surveillance authorities are meeting to ensure that EU regulations are adequate and that companies are not cutting corners on safety.