Description

Organisation of training sessions, workshop, seminars, meetings, info days and other events on specific subjects is a typical component of the EMSA’s implemented projects for IPA countries. This will continue with the current project focussing on provision of trainings related to the EU maritime legislation implemented by the beneficiaries and supporting their participation to the Users’ Groups meeting relating to the EMSA’s services that they will be granted access to. Port state control officers can be supported to attend the seminars and training sessions at Paris MoU with financing from the project, in cases of a pending application for membership to the organisation.

Moreover, training schemes developed within the context of the EMSA Academy will also be made available to participants from the beneficiary countries. including access to VRESI.

National trainings will be delivered in-country following a request from one or more of the beneficiaries. This will allow EMSA to inform a larger number of officials in the country or region.

Trainings are offered also through the Maritime Knowledge Centre (MaKCs), a web-based platform offering distance learning through pre-developed eLearning modules.

Regular Activities

Training Sessions, Workshops, Seminars and Meetings

The restrictive measures imposed due to the COVID-19 outbreak led to a new modality for organising meetings and delivering training sessions, thus most meetings and training sessions were conducted online. This new approach minimised the negative impact of the restrictions to the implementation of the project.

The online delivery proved very effective and will be very likely continued, blended with traditional ‘face to face’ activities. In general, since the objective of this fourth project directed at beneficiaries was shifted from provision of training towards other technical assistance actions, the impact of the pandemic was relatively limited as most of the actions could continue without major disruptions.

The table below shows the events all organised for EU MSs and the invitation extended to participants from the beneficiary countries.

Transposition of Legislation into the National Legislative Systems

The increased financial resources devoted to the project allowed EMSA to envisage more ambitious objectives. One of them is the support provided to beneficiaries through the TIE(R) “Ratification, Transposition, Implementation and Enforcement” project. The project consists of two phases:

• Phase I “Assessment”: Gap Analysis of the existing legislation in the BC in terms of ratification and transposition, including correlation with the latest edition of applicable EU and International maritime legislation and the potential deadlocks in the legislative process.
• Phase II “Implementation”: based on the results of Phase I, preparation of required legislative acts (drafts).

Under the TIER “Gap analysis” were performed for Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia by the selected external contractor. The Gap analysis paved the way to the implementation of phase II for Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.

Audit of the Albanian Register Shipping

Recognised Organisations (ROs) are entities with technical knowledge and adequate organisational structure to perform most of the statutory work on behalf of a Flag State to survey and certify ships’ compliance with the provisions of the international conventions. The ROs must comply with standards set both at international (IMO RO Code) and EU level (Reg EC 391/2009).

Albania has delegated almost all relevant statutory work to Albanian Register of Shipping (ARS). From January to March 2022 the project supported an audit of ARS to verify its compliance with the IMO RO Code and the relevant EU legislation. Scope of the action was to provide to the Albanian maritime administration an assessment of the capacity of ARS enabling it to take, where necessary, corrective measures aiming at improving the performance of Albania (the only delegating country) as Flag State.

Audit of the Albanian Training Centres for Seafarers

The education and training of seafarers is regulated by the STCW convention at international level and by Directive 2008/106/EC at European level. Albania is a party to the STCW convention, but its seafarers’ education and certification system is not yet recognised at EU level.

Within the context of the project and upon request of the Albanian maritime administration, a ‘mock audit’ was carried out on 5 (five) Albanian training centres for seafarers (University ´Aleksander Moisiu´ in Durres, University ´Ismail Qemali´ in Vlora, TSTS Group, Vlora Maritime Training Centre, Albanian Maritime Training Centre) to verify their compliance with the relevant requirements of the STCW convention.

The action provided Albania with an overall picture of its training system for seafarers and the required corrective actions before applying for an EU recognition.
The two audits mentioned above were performed by external experts contracted by EMSA.

Maritime Strategy Sccording to the IMO III Code

Maritime strategy for Albania and Montenegro were drafted by competent EMSA staff. Through the good cooperation established between staff of the Agency and the maritime administrations of the two beneficiaries. The deliverables (maritime strategy), when officially adopted by the respective countries, shall enhance the effectiveness of the governmental bodies involved with the implementation and enforcement of maritime related issues by identifying roles and responsibilities of each as well as by establishing KPIs indicators and criteria for the evaluation and revision of the performance as Flag, Coastal and Port State. To facilitate the process of adoption, the project financed the translation of the maritime strategy for Montenegro into the national language.

Quality Management System for Maritime Administrations (MARADS)

The Agency has in place a service framework contract to provide maritime administrations of the IPA II beneficiaries with the following services. At present the Project provides financing for the development of the QMS for the Maritime Administration of Albania (to be completed by December 2022) on:

a) Flag State related activities of a MARAD:

i. Develop a QMS and related procedures for the Flag State related activities falling within the remit of a MARAD in English, taking into consideration the relevant provisions of the III Code in compliance with “ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems- requirements”.

ii. Support the beneficiaries in the implementation of the QMS and related procedures until they are certified in accordance with the applicable international quality standards and as foreseen by the Directive on FS in its latest version or its future amendments.

b) Port and Coastal State activities

i. Supplement the QMS developed under a) with related procedures in English for the Coastal and Port State activities falling within the remit of a MARAD, taking into consideration the relevant provisions of the III Code and in compliance with “ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems – requirements”;

ii. Support the beneficiaries in the implementation of the QMS and related procedures for the Flag State activities procedures until they are certified in accordance with the applicable international quality standards and as foreseen by the Directive on FS in its latest version or its future amendments, and upon request of the beneficiary for the Coastal and Port State activities.

Provision of Rule-Check and E-learning via the EMSA Platform (MAKCs)

RuleCheck is a web-based decision supporting tool originally designed for the Port State Control (PSC) competent authorities in the Paris MoU domain.

The Maritime Knowledge Centre (MaKC) is a web-based e-Learning platform, providing a cost-effective and efficient way of ensuring the distribution of up-to-date training material to a large number of users.

The Project beneficiaries were given access to RuleCheck and MaKC as an activity under the previous Project. Contact points were designated and trained on the tool. The provision of RuleCheck and MaKC was extended under this Project and EMSA will follow-up on the use and continue promoting the tool in the next implementing period of the project.

To date 298 RuleCheck users coming from all the beneficiary countries were created.

At the same time the use of  MaKC by the beneficiaries’ users grows every year at this moment 280 users are regularly attending courses via the MaKC platform. This activity resulted in1491 MaKC courses being followed by the users from beneficiaries.

Provision of CleanSeaNet Service

CleanSeaNet is a European satellite-based oil spill and vessel detection service which assists the participating States for the identification and tracking oil pollution on the sea surface as well as for monitoring accidental pollution during emergencies.

Albania and Montenegro are provided with CSN service within the context of the project.

The participating beneficiaries will be also provided with SAT-AIS information supporting the identification of the eventual polluters. The participation of the two beneficiaries leads to the harmonised provision of the service to the project’s beneficiaries and the enhancement of their capacity to detect and respond to marine pollution.

Provision of AIS Equipment and Sharing of AIS Information in the Region

The automatic identification system (AIS) is an automatic tracking system used for collision avoidance on ships and by vessel traffic services (VTS). AIS data of the Mediterranean Member States are shared through a regional sever called MARE∑. The sharing of information enables an efficient vessel traffic monitoring in the region.

Amongst the six project’s beneficiaries Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro have accepted to share their AIS information and have signed the Service Level Agreement with EMSA and the Italian Coast Guard, MARE∑ manager.  

Under this action a study was conducted that  to determine suitable solutions to create the Albanian national AIS network.  The study also indicated the number of base stations and nodes needed as well as their best position to get a good coverage of the Beneficiary coastline. As a follow-up, 1 Central node and 5 AIS base stations were donated to Albania.

An AIS base station was also donated to Bosnia-Herzegovina to cover the limited cost line of that beenficary.

Once the donated equipment will be installed and made operational by the national authorities, the beneficiaries will be enabled to share their maritime traffic information with the EU and non-EU Members States participating in MARE∑ with an enhanced monitoring of the maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea and in an enhanced cooperation between the Mediterranean coastal States on maritime traffic monitoring.