A warning from Greece

[Bruce Nicholls]

This is typical of what goes on with European officialdom. With my other interest in the marine world we are plagued by it. The EU has been taking legal action for years against the UK government for allowing the use of red marked diesel in private boats and we have just lost on appeal. Now marinas may be expected to install extra facilities to refuel private and commercial boats separately (if Brexit fails). There were efforts from Europe to stop us applying anti fouling paint to our own vessels, rebuffed by the UK government so far. The UK has no mandatory licencing for skippers of small craft while European requirements are for testing and licencing to use even small outboard powered dinghies etc etc.
Fortunately the UK government has up to now always taken the line of common sense in both private motoring and boating, although looking at the performance of some of our politicians I feel this is a minor miracle in itself!

[Dave Wortley]

Tax avoidance by people in Greece was a main item in the news 3 or 4 years ago during their financial crisis and was regarded as a “national sport” particularly by the very wealthy if the media at the time was to be believed. Perhaps introducing these regulations and fining people using old cars is a relatively easy and publicly visible way of collecting a little revenue from a minority. Nasty politics though!

[Duncan Grimmond]

I wouldn't be surprised if this legislation is driven by the insurance industry.They don't like old cars and prefer to write off rather than repair, a bit hand-in-glove with the manufacturers and governments.

PCBs in anti-fouling chemicals are the green cause for their ban, not EU regs