CISE aims to facilitate the exchange of information between the existing maritime surveillance systems across borders and sectors, including civil and military authorities. Establishing a connection with CISE by the Maritime Surveillance (MARSUR) network comprising navies will enable operational classified and unclassified information sharing among all the members of both networks.

The opportunities this connection can offer to the MARSUR community were presented during a hybrid workshop organised by EMSA, with support of the European Defence Agency (EDA), and hosted by the Portuguese Navy in Lisbon on 13 October. The workshop was attended by 40 representatives from 15 EU Member States’ Navies and EU Agencies who discussed the technical, operational and security related issues concerning CISE.

During the workshop, EMSA explained the similarities between the services offered by both networks and the necessary steps to reach the operational exchange of information.  The representatives of the Spanish Navy presented the current state of the connection between MARSUR community and the CISE network using a bridging solution offered by them. Thanks to a live demonstration the participants of the workshop could see how the information exchange within CISE can be performed in practice using the “MARSUR” adaptor, which is hosted by the Spanish Navy.

The workshop was organised as a part of the ongoing discussions on the possibility of the MARSUR Community joining the CISE network. It is worth mentioning that, in the recent Council conclusions on maritime security from 22 June 2021, information exchange with CISE is mentioned as one of the contributing factors to the further development of the Maritime Surveillance (MARSUR) network. The Council also called for a widespread implementation of CISE as the interoperability solution in the EU maritime domain and encouraged further efforts to set up a fully operational network.