The commission also said it was starting legal action against 10 EU nations that failed to enact measures put in place by the Union following the wreck of the tanker Erika in December 1999, which broke apart off the French coast, spilling its load of heavy fuel oil and creating an environmental disaster.

It said only Denmark, France, Germany, Spain and Britain met the July 22 deadline to enact the new rules for stepped-up ship inspection and tighter control in ports, including an obligation to inspect a quarter of vessels entering EU ports.

Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio regretted that it had taken so long to introduce the measures.

"We could have avoided the Prestige oil spill, had these key measures been into force earlier as the Commission initially proposed," she said.

The Prestige, an old single-hulled oil tanker, broke in two off the coast of Spain last November, in what was the worst oil spill in Spanish history. The accident wrecked much of the regional Galician economy, dependent largely on tourism and fishing.

"These rules now need to be fully adopted and implemented," De Palacio said. "The Commission, as guardian of the EU treaties, will do its utmost to make sure that another Prestige disaster does not endanger EU waters and shores."

The commission is seeking to identify unsound vessels and ban them from European waters if they are repeatedly found to have safety defects. The blacklist published Friday includes ships "whose state flag is considered at very high risk or high risk," and ships that have been detained once or twice in the past year for safety violations.

The blacklist will mostly affect older oil tankers and bulk carriers. Of the 112 ships listed, 36 are registered in Turkey, 14 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and 10 in Panama.

"If we want to protect our seas, it is necessary that all ports and all countries apply the same rules at the same time," a Commission spokesman said.

TERRA.WIRE