In the context of technical assistance to ENP countries EMSA, in cooperation with the Italian Coast Guard, invited the SAFEMED IV and BCSEA beneficiary countries who are taking part or are willing to take part in the pilot project on AIS information sharing to attend the 14th  MARE∑ Experts Working Group meeting held in Rome on 6-7 December 2017. 

The meeting was attended by delegations from Jordan and Morocco from the SAFEMED IV project; Georgia and Ukraine from the BCSEA project.

During the first day of the meeting the participating ENP countries had the opportunity to familiarise with the MARE∑ environment intended ad EU MSs participating countries and functionalities of the regional server. The first day was also an opportunity to inform the EU MSs participating to MARE∑ about the two projects for technical assistance to ENP countries managed by the Agency and, in particular, about the mentioned pilot project on AIS in which they could be involved during the second phase when the sharing between ENP countries and some selected EU MSs should be implemented. During the second day that was dedicated to ENP countries they had the opportunity to present the status of the national AIS networks, highlight their needs in terms of infrastructures to cover the entire coastline and were also given the opportunity to ask about possibility of tailor-making the service at their own needs. During the second day EMSA presented the status of the pilot project on AIS information sharing and provided participating countries with some general information on SEG the users’ graphical interface through which the AIS information will be shared.

The 14th MARE∑ Experts Working Group Meeting was an opportunity for the participating SAFEMED IV and BCSEA countries, particularly those which have not yet signed the relevant Service Level Agreement, to reaffirm their interest in participating to the pilot on AIS information sharing. It was also an opportunity to be informed on the status of the project and highlight their needs for infrastructure some of which were until now unknown to EMSA (Jordan and Morocco). EMSA declared that the expressed needs will be considered by EMSA according to the established procedure to implement technical actions and following the approval by the projects’ contracting authority.