Maritime security strategy

Improving the coordination between maritime authorities and across borders is a long-winded work. The key to success is interoperability: the technical ability to exchange information between systems that were developed completely independent from each other. The EU’s Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) is doing exactly that, and just last week, the European Commission has released a staff working document to present its progress so far.

Last week, the European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy adopted the second implementation report on the EU Maritime Security Strategy. The purpose of this Joint Staff Working Document is to give readers an overview of the activities currently under way at EU and national level and to take stock of the implementation the Maritime Security Strategy Action Plan as reported by Member States.

EU ministers have backed a set of actions to make Europe's seas safer and to protect the EUs maritime security interests from the threats which it faces. The Action Plan, part of the EU's Maritime Security Strategy adopted in June 2014, takes a cross-border and cross-sector approach to confronting the seaborne perils which the EU is confronted with. The plan is also central to the EU's commitment to boost the maritime economy since investments in the European maritime domain can only be prosperous if the seas are safe and secure.

The Council today endorsed an EU maritime security strategy as a framework for effectively and comprehensively addressing the EU's maritime security challenges.

Speech by Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries at the CHENS (CHiefs of European NavieS) annual meeting, Portsmouth

The European Commission and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy have adopted today a Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council "For an open and secure global maritime domain: elements for a European Union maritime security strategy".