The Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum (MedCGFF) is a non-binding, voluntary, independent and non-political forum bringing together representatives from institutions and agencies with related competencies in coast guard functions in the Mediterranean to facilitate multilateral cooperation on a wide range of issues such as maritime safety, security and environmental protection activities as well as the potential partnership for their application, seeking solutions to common problems and issues confronting participating countries by sharing expertise and best practices in a cooperative and consensual manner.

On the 27-28 June 2018, the MCGFF Secretariat organised the plenary conferences on the Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum in Marseille (France). As part of the implementation of its capacity building tasks, EMSA supported the participation of eleven representatives from Mediterranean Countries beneficiaries of the SAFEMED IV Project on technical assistance, namely Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Tunisia and Morocco. DG MARE, EFCA, FRONTEX among others also joined the conference.

The main achievements and conclusions are as follows:

• - The update of the Point of Contacts List (PoCs) of the MCGFF Members;
• - The establishment of a permanent working group no later than September 2018 which will deal with “Maritime Safety, Marine Environment Protection and Cooperation on Pollution Response, maritime surveillance, illegal fishing”
• - The commitment to improve the maritime situational awareness through the sharing of AIS information
• - The promotion of cooperation and dialogue, through relevant international and regional fora in the maritime domain
• - The extension of the European Coast Guard Functions Academies Network project in order to establish a Sectorial Qualification Framework.

At the end of the Conference, the chairmanship was transferred from France to Morocco.