European Marine Casualty Information Platform – EMCIP

Operational starting from June 2011, the European Marine Casualty Information Platform (EMCIP) is a database and a data distribution system operated by EMSA, the European Commission and the EU/EEA Member States. EMCIP aims to deliver a range of potential benefits at national and European relevance by:

  • Improving the information background about marine casualties and incidents;
  • Widening and deepening the analysis of the results of casualty investigations;
  • Providing at-a-glance information, enabling general risk identification and profiling;
  • Sharing lessons learned and safety issues detected in the course of safety investigations.

emcip screenshotMember States notification of marine casualties and incidents, and reporting of data resulting from safety investigations in EMCIP, has been mandatory since 17 June 2011. This has allowed the Agency to assist the Commission and Member States with analysis of such data, the development of trend monitoring mechanisms, proposals for safety recommendations, the improvement of existing European legislation and promotion of new technical requirements.

EMCIP provides the means to store data and information related to marine casualties and incidents involving all types of ships including occupational accidents related to ship operations. It also enables the production of statistics and analysis of the technical, human, environmental and organisational factors involved in accidents at sea.

EMCIP is also connected to the Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS) managed by the International Maritime Organisation, thus supporting the dissemination of investigation data reported by the EU/EEA MS at a global level without any duplication of effort.

The database’s taxonomy has been developed by EMSA in consultation with the Member States, on the basis of European research and international recommended practice and procedures.

Information about marine casualties and incidents is also made accessible to the public, such as the investigation reports published by the accident investigation bodies and “anonymized” data about casualties and incidents notified by Member States authorities.

EMSA as EMCIP manager

EMSA manages EMCIP on behalf of the Commission, hosting, providing maintenance and improving the system.

EMSA is assisted in its tasks by the Member States through the EMCIP User Group.

The Permanent Cooperation Framework, together with the representatives of other authorities designated by the Member States as points of contact for EMCIP governance, is the relevant framework for the development of the database scheme and the method for the data notification, as laid out in Directive 2009/18/EC, Article 17 (4).

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