The current French Chairmanship of the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF) organised together with EMSA a joint workshop on “Information sharing and data security in the maritime safety and security domains”, hosted by EMSA on 11-12 February 2020.

The general objective of the workshop was to share best practices among the various relevant national and regional stakeholders, stimulate reflection regarding priorities to be identified and key challenges in information sharing and data security in the maritime safety and security domains, from the perspective of three overarching themes:

1. Data Sharing

2. Cyber Security in the Maritime Sector

3. RPAS and Emerging Technology

The Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) was discussed throughout the workshop but in particular during the thematic plenary and break-out sessions on Data Sharing. Under this theme, EMSA provided a presentation on the Transitional Phase of CISE, which is being coordinated by the Agency, including an overview of the progress of the activities leading to an operational phase of CISE.

CISE was addressed also in the contributions from EFCA, Frontex and EDA, and presented in the perspective of several communities such as fisheries, border control and defence. Amongst the conclusions of the Data Sharing sessions, it was noted that while there is already a CISE technology achievement, there is still work to do in order to define the agreement for sharing the information (cooperation agreement). Increasing the cooperation will increase the trust, and building trust can also be made through training and exercises.