Context
Maritime surveillance refers to the effective understanding of all activities carried out at sea that could impact the security, safety, economy or environment of the European Union and its Member States.
Seven different functions, also referred to as User Communities or sectors, were identified as relevant for maritime surveillance: (1) maritime safety (including search and rescue), maritime security and prevention of pollution caused by ships, (2) fisheries control, (3) marine pollution preparedness and response, (4) customs, (5) border control, (6) general law enforcement and (7) defence. The way maritime surveillance is currently set up in the EU does not enable information sharing to the desired level across the seven User Communities, and leads to inefficiencies and duplication of efforts.
Due to the lack of a European interoperability infrastructure interconnecting all public authorities relevant for maritime surveillance, several initiatives have emerged within every User Community over the past years to remove barriers to cross-border interoperability. This means that in most User Communities, EU-wide systems are already in place, supporting their day-to-day activities e.g. SafeSeaNet for vessel traffic monitoring and information. The next step is to remove the barriers between User Communities that prevent information from flowing between them.
In December 2009, to make information sharing across User Communities a reality, the European Commission adopted a communication “Towards the integration of maritime surveillance in the EU: A common information sharing environment for the EU maritime domain”. In 2010, the European Commission put forward a six-step Roadmap towards the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE).
Objectives
Development of a reference implementation to facilitate cross-sectoral information exchange amongst CISE participants.
Content
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