Spain and Portugal clash over responsibility for sinking

Feuding and finger pointing engulfed the European Union last night over responsibility for the sinking of the Prestige.

Spain and Portugal were at each other's throats, while France – the last European country to suffer from a major oil spill – accused the EU of failing to implement a new system of maritime checks. The French President, Jacques Chirac, had harsh words for the EU, criticising the "inability of officials, in particular European, to take the necessary measures to fight against the laxity that allows the development of these rust-buckets".

Spain and Portugal enjoy prickly relations at the best of times but the sinking of the Prestige has prompted a fierce dispute between the neighbouring maritime nations, each of which is desperate avoid taking responsibility for the disaster that threatens to engulf them both.

Portugal's Prime Minister, Jose Durao Barroso, said he was "absolutely sure and confirmed by the navy" that the tanker was in Spanish waters.

Spain, however, considers that the tanker, which has now disappeared beneath the waves although it may not yet have touched bottom, is outside its jurisdiction, and that it bears no responsibility for it. Spain was trying to raise money to compensate stricken fishermen yesterday, clean up the mess and stop further onshore advances of the slick.

Portugal's Defence minister, Paulo Portas, discussed the accident and its potential consequences on the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels with Spanish officials. "The accident occurred in Spanish waters and that has a certain legal weight," Mr Portas was quoted as saying. Mr Chirac said a "draconian" maritime policy was now needed by the 15 EU countries. He noted that the EU had acted to phase out unseaworthy tankers after a similar disaster off northern France in 1999 when the tanker Erika split in two. "Measures are being put in place, but it's too slow," he said.

The EU Transport commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, wrote to all EU governments yesterday, urging them not to wait until July next year to put the new rules in place. Mr Chirac's Transport minister, Gilles de Robien, went further, saying: "We need a police [force] of the high seas." He accused the EU of being too slow to put in place a maritime policy to check vessels in European waters.

The row is the latest to flare over the ambiguities of responsibility for the Bahamas-flagged, Greek-owned ship heading from Latvia to Gibraltar (according to Madrid) or to Singapore (insists Britain).

Later this month, the European Parliament is due to discuss a draft EU Liability Directive. But the proposal has been criticised by environmentalists for being "so weak it is practically useless".

Portuguese officials believe they will be safe from the slick until tomorrow. "We're doing computer simulations every 12 hours," a naval officer, Francisco Vidal de Abreu, said. "We don't expect it to reach Portugal over the next 48 hours."

But Lisbon is bracing itself for the worst: if the wind changes today the oil slick could threaten Portuguese coastal areas which, like Spain's, support fishing communities that are the linchpin of local economies.

The last serious oil spill to affect Portugal was in 1990 when a 12-mile slick blackened the coastline of Madeira, about 435 miles west of Morocco.