By 31 December 2018, all vessels flying the flag of a European Union member state (around 12% of the global fleet) will need to comply with the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (SRR). This is the rule that brought the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships into EU law.
From 2019, any end-of-life, EU-flagged vessel will need to be scrapped at an approved recycling facility, a list of which the EU last updated in May.
