Maritime safety in the post-prestige era

The Prestige accident is perhaps the last among a series of serious marine accidents that have significantly shaped the formulation of maritime safety policy worldwide. The main thesis of this paper is that in spite of recent progress in this area, there is still a long way to achieve a truly "proactive" maritime safety regime. A qualitative assessment on the nature of some major maritime safety policies and on the way that these are put forward is attempted, along with some opinions on possible pitfalls and on what needs to be done so that this process can be further improved.