SafeMed II Project’s Advisory Committee Meeting held in Portugal – Jun 09, 2010
In the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Transport Forum, on the 9 June 2010, the European Commission’s Directorates General ‘Mobility and Transport’ and ‘EuropeAid Co-operation Office’ organised the 5th Meeting of the Maritime Safety Sub-Group, at the offices of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Lisbon.
Bringing together representatives of the Euro-Mediterranean partners, and held under the auspices of the co-presidency of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the Meeting, which also acts as the Advisory Committee of the SafeMed II Project, discussed the progress of the SafeMed II Project which is being implemented by REMPEC.
The main objective of this annual Meeting is to update the Project’s beneficiaries with the status of the implementation of the Project and with the latest developments in EuroMed cooperation in the field of maritime safety and security and the protection of the marine environment. This Meeting also provides an opportunity for the Project’s beneficiaries to inform the Meeting about the developments in their respective territories with regard to the implementation of the relevant actions of the EuroMed Regional Transport Action Plan (RTAP) 2007-2013.
The representatives from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro were welcomed for the first time as new SafeMed II Project beneficiaries in the context of the UfM. The meeting was also attended by representatives from Italy, Monaco and Portugal and by representatives from the EC, EMSA, IMO, REMPEC, the Mediterranean MoU on Port State Control and CETMO.
While noting the progress in the successful implementation of the SafeMed II Project, the Meeting acknowledged both SafeMed’s instrumental role in assisting the Mediterranean partners in enhancing the implementation of international maritime conventions, and the progress made by the beneficiaries in implementing the relevant actions of the RTAP 2007-2013 as a result of SafeMed.
Participants discussed the status of Vessel Traffic Monitoring Systems (VTMS) and the Automatic Identification System (AIS) in their respective territories and the future implementation of Activity 4 of the Project, in particular, the sharing of AIS data amongst the Project’s beneficiaries using the EC/EMSA AIS Regional (Mediterranean) server located in Rome. The Meeting noted that further progress is needed to accomplish the intentions of the RTAP, notably with regard to VTMS’s action 9.
More information can be found on the SafeMed website.