Legislative changes to enable this are now being urgently developed so they can be presented to the House of Representatives before summer.
The Russian shadow fleet consists of ships transporting sanctioned Russian oil through shady constructions. These ships are often in poor condition, posing risks to nautical safety and the environment. They are also suspected of involvement in espionage by the Russian state to map vital infrastructure such as data and electricity cables on the seabed.
Within territorial waters, countries have more authority to intervene against such ships, but in the case of the Netherlands, these ships often pass through the EEZ, where in principle the country whose flag the ship flies has authority over the ship.
A ship sailing under a false flag has no flag state, making these rules inapplicable and intervention possible. Therefore, the Ministries of Infrastructure and Water Management and Justice and Security are urgently working on legislative changes to legally enable intervention against such falsely flagged ships.
Minister of Infrastructure Robert Tieman: “With the shadow fleet, Russia finances its war machine in Ukraine and circumvents international sanctions. That is unacceptable. As Europe, we have already taken many steps to counter this, but more is needed. With these steps, we want to intervene more strongly in the future when such ships sail through the Dutch part of the North Sea.”