In the context of the EU funded projects providing technical assistance to ENP beneficiary countries, EMSA invited Black and Caspian Sea and SAFEMED IV Projects’ representatives participating in the Pilot Project on AIS information sharing to attend the 15th MAREΣ Experts Working Group meeting organised in collaboration with the Italian Coast Guard and held in Venice on 27 November 2018.

The meeting was attended by EU Member States (MSs) sharing SafeSeaNet (SSN) information through the SSN Mediterranean Regional Server (MAREΣ) and by Georgia and Ukraine from the BCSEA Project and by Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia from the SAFEMED IV Project.

During the meeting the representatives from the ENP beneficiary countries had the opportunity to examine in depth the MAREΣ environment and the diverse functionalities of the regional server. EMSA representatives informed the EU MSs of the latest ENP projects’ development and the actions planned to enable the implementation of the second phase of the pilot projects on sharing AIS information. In detail, the second phase implies the sharing of AIS information on voluntary basis between the ENP countries and some selected EU MSs according to a draft bilateral agreement.

The MAREΣ EWG welcomed the initiative and agreed on the draft bilateral agreement that will be presented to the next SSN High Level Steering Group (HLSG) meeting that will take place in Brussels on 11 December 2018 for the final approval.