A task which has taken up much of the Committee’s time during 1997-1998 has been reception of ships’ waste in port as required under the MARPOL Convention. Although the Commission’s directive is not yet finalised, the Committee and the specialists in their MARPOL Sub-group can claim some success in shaping the draft directive to meet the principles set out in ESPO’s own MARPOL policy statement. The Marine Committee and the MARPOL Sub-group have worked very closely.