On 17 October 2024, the EU’s maritime community met in Brussels to discuss the present challenges in maritime security domain and the role of CISE in bringing maritime authorities together for a stronger and more effective response to them. The “CISE high-level event”, organised by the European Commission’s DG MARE in cooperation with EMSA and CISE-ALERT Project, was attended by 180 participants in person and 360 online viewers representing a broad range of maritime authorities from across the EU.

The more maritime authorities join and share information via CISE, the more value it will add to their efforts to ensure security at sea. Amid new and evolving maritime threats, CISE can multiply the collective security and surveillance capacities and enhance the awareness of what is happening at sea, both above and below the surface. These are the main messages that were repeatedly stressed throughout the Brussels’ conference dedicated to the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for the EU maritime domain.

The participants to the event reflected on what has been achieved so far, in particular the launch of the CISE Operational Phase on 1 July, which is one of the major accomplishments of the European Maritime Security Strategy (EUMSS) and its Action Plan. The implementation of CISE is well underway, and as demonstrated during the event, the involved maritime authorities have already carried out extensive testing of information sharing through CISE in different operational settings. The exercises performed addressed activities such as protection of critical maritime infrastructure, fight against illegal activities at sea, pollution response, cybersecurity, etc.

Among the main topics of the event, were the future developments of CISE and the need to further promote this tool and to make sure that it serves maritime authorities located across all sea basins around Europe. It was pointed out that CISE comes at a pertinent moment given the complex and dynamic maritime security context we have today. It is therefore important to build upon the exercises conducted so far, and to start using CISE for enhanced information exchange. Regarding the next steps for CISE, the focus was also set on the CISE CLASSIFIED network which will further facilitate the cooperation between military, law enforcement and civilian authorities in the EU.

The final panel of the event was dedicated to the outcomes of the CISE-ALERT Project as it had an essential role in making CISE operational. The project, which ran from November 2022 to October 2024, was implemented by a consortium of maritime authorities from France, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Portugal. It was concluded by a series of trials which successfully demonstrated the real added value of CISE in maritime operations at sea. The involved authorities highlighted the benefits of using CISE including closer cooperation and coordination among different authorities across sectors, and within and among different EU Member States.

 The event featured high-level speakers from several maritime authorities involved in CISE: Bulgarian Maritime Administration, French Secretariat General of the Sea, French Coast Guard Customs, French Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service, Hellenic Navy General Staff, Italian Coast Guard, Italian Space Agency, Slovenian Maritime Administration, Spanish Navy, Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU, Portuguese Navy, Portuguese Directorate General for Maritime Policy. Different EU institutions and bodies were also extensively represented, including: the European Commission’s services (DG MARE, DG MOVE, DG HOME), European External Action Service (EEAS), EU Satellite Center (SatCen), European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX), European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), European Defence Agency (EDA), and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

The discussions were divided into four thematic panels: 1) The importance of CISE in maritime security and surveillance, 2) CISE as a key tool for the implementation of the EU Maritime Security Strategy, 3) Current and future use cases of CISE, 4) How the CISE-ALERT project paved the way to the operational use of CISE.

The recording of the entire event is available below: