France has demanded assurances that the Costa Concordia will not break up or release pollution as it is towed from the island of Giglio past Corsica to Genoa, where it will be demolished, reports The Telegraph.
Ségolène Royal, the French environment minister, has written to her Italian counterpart saying it is “unacceptable” that the exact route that the Concordia will take has not yet been decided on.
On Monday the 115,000 tonne luxury liner was refloated from the artificial platform on which it has been sitting since being hauled upright last September.
The ship, which capsized off Giglio in Jan 2012 with the loss of 32 lives, is due to be towed away from the island next Monday.
Two different routes are under consideration, but both will take the Concordia, along with an accompanying convoy of around a dozen safety and anti-pollution vessels, past the coast of Corsica.
Although it will stay out of French territorial waters, it could pass to within 30 kilometres of the Corsican coast and the authorities in Paris are concerned about potential pollution.
The uncertainty over the route the convoy will take was “unacceptable”, Ms Royal wrote to Gian Luca Galletti, the Italian environment minister.
The French coast must not be put at risk of environmental damage, she said, adding that France wanted “written and incontrovertible proof” that the ship’s fuel tanks had been emptied - an operation that was completed within months of the disaster.
Italy said “rigorous and constant” checks will be carried out as the cruise ship is towed the 200 nautical miles across the Mediterranean, on a route which takes it through the middle of a large whale and dolphin reserve.
“The environmental safeguarding of the Tyrrhenian Sea will be a priority for Italy, which has already paid a very high price for the tragedy,” Mr Galletti said.
Read more of this report from The Telegraph.