12th CISE Stakeholder Group meeting held on 7-8 March 2023

Sixty-two Member States’ and European bodies’ nominated experts gathered during the 12^th CISE Stakeholder Group (CSG) meeting held on 7-8 March at EMSA´s premises in Lisbon. The CSG discussed the status of readiness of the CISE network to become operational and the related preparatory activities.

In the opening remarks, the European Commission’s (EC) DG MARE announced the adoption of the Joint Communication on the update of the  EU Maritime Security Strategy (EUMSS) which gives prominence to CISE as one of the key deliverables contributing to the enhanced EU’s maritime domain awareness. In the context of the ongoing preparations to the operational phase of CISE, DG MARE informed that its governance structure will be discussed during the next meeting of the Member State Expert Sub-Group on Integration of Maritime Security and Surveillance in May 2023.

Among the main highlights of the meeting was the update about the successful installation of the operational version of the CISE Node by the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) and Slovenia, thereby extending the CISE pre-operational network to 11 nodes. Moreover, EMSA reported to the CSG that the activities foreseen under the Transitional Phase of CISE were almost completed, and with the approval of the “Responsibility to Share” (RTS) methodology during this meeting another objective has been met. The latter will support the implementation of the RTS principle in the operational phase of CISE, aiming to stimulate the information exchange in the network and thus improving its overall performance. 

To further advance the preparations to the operational phase, the stakeholders were invited to participate in the exercises to test the use of CISE in a pre-operational context. During the meeting, the CSG members were also updated on the ongoing activities within the CISE-ALERT project, which supports shifting CISE into an operational network. EMSA encouraged the stakeholders to assist with the CISE -ALERT project activities and, where possible, to get involved. EMSA, DG MARE and France, which is the leading Member State of the project, invited the members to participate in the European Maritime Day workshop dedicated to the EUMSS and the added-value services to be developed under the CISE-ALERT project.

To celebrate the International Women’s Day on 8 March, we took the opportunity to take a photo of the ”Women behind CISE” who were present during the meeting in Lisbon. 

The meeting was attended online and in person by 62 representatives from 17 Member States and 8 European bodies. The next CSG meeting (13^th) is planned to take place on 21-22 June 2023 at EMSA.