One of the projects being supported at the moment is called MAiDEN (MAritime Information Data Exchange Network), and has just been launched in Brussels. Over the next two years, MAiDEN will seek to establish an advanced and secure communication channel among the various Belgian authorities operating in and for the North Sea.

Belgian authorities performing coastguard functions such as the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, the Maritime Defence Component, the Customs and the Shipping Police would then get a much clearer and more exhaustive picture of the situation at sea at any given moment. Better 'situational awareness', as they call it, means in turn more effective patrolling, more targeted interventions and faster rescue, for the benefit of all the users of the sea basin.

MAiDEN was awarded a €750,000 grant following last year's call for proposal "Implementation of the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for the EU maritime domain". The various national networks developed through projects such as MAiDEN will eventually feed into the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) - the pan-European platform for voluntary information exchange between EU Member States in the maritime domain that the European Commission is developing in the framework of the EU's Maritime Security Strategy Action Plan.