On 25- 27 June 2024, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) hosted the seventh Annual European Coast Guard Event in Tenerife, Spain. It was co-organised with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the European Boarder and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The event gathered around 100 representatives responsible for coast guard functions from 22 EU Member States, along with representatives from the European Commission and the three EU Agencies.
The Annual European Coast Guard Event serves as a forum for providing consultation and feedback on the Agencies’ cross-sectoral and cross-border cooperation activities. EFCA, EMSA, and Frontex support Member States in the implementation of different coast guard functions, such as fisheries control, maritime safety, border control and search and rescue, under the framework of the European Coast Guard Cooperation.
This year’s event focused on three main topics currently being developed and implemented together with Member States authorities:
- Multipurpose Maritime Operations (MMOs): The MMOs are being implemented in different sea basins, providing increased technical and operational assistance to Member States by coordinating operational activities.
- Exchange Programme for national authorities implementing coast guard functions, led by EFCA in close cooperation with EMSA and Frontex: The Programme had this year 21 coast guard authorities and entities from 9 Member States (Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain) & Iceland that offered overall 128 places as hosts.
- The Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE), led by EMSA and that enters now in the operational phase.
The event also provided the opportunity to present the results and prizes under the Greening Award Initiative, which aims to celebrate the sustainability actions that are being carried out by coast guard authorities all over Europe. Winners were announced in three categories: Greening Operations, Outreach and Awareness, and Greening at Work. Details on the winning projects can be found at coastguard.europa.eu.
Susan Steele, Executive Director of the EFCA, praised the achievements of the interagency cooperation: “The three partner EU Agencies in the Maritime Domain have established since 2017 a unique cooperation framework involving their respective Member State competent authorities and the European Commission. After these seven years, we are now at full speed in terms of our cooperation with very concrete examples. It is clear that the European Cooperation on Coast Guard Functions is an added value for Member States fisheries control authorities and for EFCA. This will also benefit the needed future developments under the revised EU fisheries control system.
