Coronia stranded by new law

Edward McMillan-Scott has been battling against Whitehall to allow The Coronia - a Scarborough-based pleasure vessel which travelled to Dunkirk during World War II - to continue plying her 17 mile pleasure trips from Scarborough to Whitby.

The Coronia has been docked since the beginning of July when her proprietor, Tom Machin, was informed by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency that she was no longer able to travel her normal route due to the application of EC Directive 98/18/EC. 

Following a thorough investigation by Edward McMillan-Scott, however, it has become clear that the Coronia had been prevented from sailing her usual route up the coast not because of EU Law, but because of 'equivalent' safety standards now being applied by the British government.

Under equivalent safety standards which came into effect in July, the Coronia now falls under Class VI classification which precludes her from sailing more than 15 miles from her 'point of departure'. Under EU Law, however, the Coronia - and Bridlington's Yorkshire Belle [which Edward McMillan-Scott is also campaigning to save since she was docked at the beginning of September 2007] - falls under Class C classification and is thus able to sail no more than 15 miles from a 'place of refuge', thereby enabling her to continue making her 17 mile voyage to Whitby.

Since discovering that the restrictions now in place are the result of British and not EU Law, Mr McMillan-Scott has written to the Department for Transport requesting that they apply the EC Directive in full, given that the Coronia complies with European Union safety standards and would still be able to ply her trade if the British government were to apply it to the letter.

It is not only the livelihoods of proprietors Tom Machin and Pete Richardson which are at stake here, but also the seaside resort of Whitby, which has since lost considerable tourist revenue.

Do you have any evidence of bureaucratic bungling? If so, do not hesitate to contact Edward - see Contacts for details

The night the EU Commission fell 

Edward McMillan-Scott discovered a Greek fraudster working in the EU Commission Tourism Unit in 1990. He reported it to the relevant EU bodies, but nothing was done.

Edward and Dutch whistleblower call on the Commission to resign: they did

So Edward called in the Belgian Fraud Squad. After this, the EU set up a panel of internal auditors.  One of them, the Dutch whistleblower Paul van Buitenen, went public when he too found that his superiors were burying clear evidence of  fraud.

Eventually, working together, they secured an external review by three "Wise Men" to examine this and other cases of mismanagement. 

The night the report was published - stating that the "Wise Men" could find no-one in the Commission with any sense of responsibility - Edward and van Buitenen called for their resignation. 

Within hours, led by Sir Leon Brittan, the 20 Commissioners resigned en masse, the biggest crisis in the EU's history.