The EU was warned last night not to try to use the helicopter crash in the North Sea to justify its controversial bid to seize control of the offshore safety regime.
Bureaucrats in Brussels have tabled plans to create a new Europe-wide regulatory system, but the move is opposed by the industry, trade unions, and the UK and Scottish governments.
An EU commissioner was criticised in March when he said the gas leak at Total’s Elgin platform proved it was time to “speed up” the transfer of powers over safety from the UK to Brussels.
MPs warned yesterday that any attempt to link the EU’s plans with the latest Super Puma incident off Aberdeen would not be acceptable. Labour’s shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex said: “It would be inappropriate for the commission to seek to use this incident to promote their desire to regulate North Sea activity.
“It is a different regime altogether and their attempt to do so with the Elgin incident was a crass intervention they should not be repeating.”
Sir Robert Smith, Liberal Democrat MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, who is a member of Westminster’s energy and climate change committee, said: “I certainly wouldn’t want to see the EU trying to exploit the incident to further press their attempt to take control of North Sea regulation.”
EU Commissioner Gunther Oettinger called for a Europe-wide regulatory system for the oil and gas industry last year, warning the risk of a major incident was “unacceptably high”.
Bosses in Britain’s offshore sector fear the move could lead to “disaster” in the UK, which already has world-leading safety standards, because firms and regulators would spend years reworking safety cases with no benefit.