The incident off the Spanish, Portuguese and French coastlines in November 2002 involving the oil tanker Prestige underlines the importance of ensuring that internationally agreed comprehensive construction and safety regulations are in place. In the wake of that incident the EU announced in January 2003 that new measures would be implemented to accelerate the phasing out of single hull tankers, restrictions would be introduced on the operation of such tankers in European waters and the EU's port state control regime, which is implemented by all member states, would be strengthened across the board. I understand a significant element of this work is likely to arise during Ireland's Presidency of the EU in 2004.