Welcome to the Research and Analytics hub at EMSA. This is the home of the EU Maritime Profile, developed to provide relevant and up-to-date statistics highlighting the details and importance of individual sectors and domains within the maritime transport sector in the European Union.

The EU Maritime Profile is just one part of our research and analytics work. EMSA is also responsible for: the development of horizontal and cost effective analysis and reports regarding the overall implementation of maritime legislation; the production of regular and ad hoc statistics, using data available from in house tools and applications to support the Commission and the Member States; the development of annual overviews in cooperation with relevant business units; the Dynamic Overview of National Authorities (DONA); and the coordination of EMSA’s participation and follow-up on relevant Research Projects, in cooperation with the Business Units, the European Commission and other Agencies.

• EMSA provides objective, reliable and comparable statistics, information and data, to enable the Commission and the Member States to take the necessary steps to improve their actions.
• EMSA carries out horizontal analyses of reports from the various visits cycle with a view to identifying horizontal findings and general conclusions on the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of the measures in place.
• EMSA develops and publishes research studies to address identified safety or environmental issues, to analyse possibilities and impact of new technologies and to support or complement ongoing discussions in the EU and in IMO.
• The Dynamic Overview of National Authorities (DONA) is an EMSA application to support the MSs and the EC and has three main functionalities:

• • Country Profile: A publicly available section of DONA which includes various type of information pertaining to how MSs have organised their competent authorities responsible for their Flag, Port and Coastal State obligations, as well as on authorities performing coast guard functions, or other competent authorities responsible for the implementation of EU legal acts falling within the mandate of EMSA.
  • Reporting Gate: A single-entry portal with restricted access, through which MSs could, in accordance with a pre-agreed list of reports and templates report to the EC on the implementation of various EU legal acts.
  • Statistics: A restricted area of DONA, available only to designated users from the MSs, where EMSA uploads regularly, maritime related statistics from data sources available in EMSA, thus supporting MSs in their capacity as Flag, Port and Coastal States and their monitoring activities in measuring their own performance.

Horizontal analysis

Horizontal analysis is an EMSA core task under Articles 2 and 3(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 (as amended). Therefore, EMSA carries out horizontal analyses when a cycle of visits or inspections has been completed, which is when a full set of results can be analysed and common issues, root-causes, good practices and possible ways forward to improve implementation can be identified. In addition, an interim horizontal analysis is usually carried at mid-cycle, after about half of the planned visits or inspections have been carried out, and an initial picture can be drawn.

Nine horizontal analyses have been carried out from 2016 to 2020, aggregating some 1791 findings, including shortcomings and observations, deriving from 177 reports of visits to all Member States namely in relation to the following Directives: marine equipment (MED), registration of persons on board ships (PAX), vessel traffic monitoring and information system (VTMIS) including places of refuge, port State control (PSC), accident investigation (AI), training of seafarers (STCW), Sulphur content  in marine fuels (SUL), and harmonised requirements and procedures for the safe loading and unloading of bulk carriers (BULK). These horizontal analyses have already been presented and discussed in several workshops and meetings with the Commission and the Member States.

The Horizontal Analysis and Cost Effectiveness Analysis reports are available for Member States administrations on a dedicated page of EMSA’s e-Portal