Pottering said the law represents an important response to offshore tanker accidents and will lead to better protection of the seas and the environment from oil spills. "With this regulation, which will enter into force in a few weeks time in the member states of the European Union, an important step has been taken to protect the seas from dangerous oil pollution in the event of shipwrecks," Pottering declared after the signing.

Under the new regulation, oil tankers transporting heavy oils will only be allowed to fly the flag of a European Union member state if they are double hulled. In addition, regardless of what flag they are flying, only double hulled tankers will be able to enter member states' harbours or anchor in their territorial waters.

The regulation applies in all the 27 EU member states and, now that it has been signed, will enter into force on the 20th day after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

European lawmakers began to pay close attention to oil spill damage after the single hulled Maltese tanker Erika broke up and sank off the French coast on December 12, 1999, spilling an estimated 3,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil that formed a slick 15 kilometers long. It polluted the north and south banks of the Loire River and the Brittany coast.

Concern intensified after the Bahamas-flagged single hulled tanker, the Prestige, sank off Spain in November 2002, releasing 80% of the tanker's 77,000 metric tons of fuel oil into the waters off Spain's northeast coast. Because the leaking Prestige drifted at sea for eight days, the spill contaminated six countries, with the worst impacts seen in Spain, Portugal, and France.

Experts predict the Prestige spill will affect marine life until at least 2012 because the oil spilled contained polyaromatic hydrocarbons. These toxic chemicals may poison plankton, fish eggs and crustaceans, causing carcinogenic effects in fish and other animals higher up the food chain.