The incident involving the Prestige gave added impetus to the drive to improve ship safety and pollution prevention measures. EU Ministers committed themselves to building on the progress made during the previous few years. To that end, several new measures were introduced. The EU Council of Ministers and the Parliament have adopted a proposal by the Commission to further accelerate the phasing out of single-hulled tankers and to ban the carriage of heavy-grade fuel oil in such tankers. EU member states have requested that the IMO introduce similar arrangements, to be applied internationally. A Commission proposal concerning sanction for offences involving pollution of the marine environment is currently under consideration at EU official working group level.