Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2015)667 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2015)667 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2015)667  |
| date | 15-12-2015 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
There are currently more than 300 civilian and military authorities in the Member States responsible for carrying out coastguard functions in a wide range of areas such as maritime safety, security, search and rescue, border control, fisheries control, customs control, general law enforcement and environmental protection. A number of EU agencies, in particular Frontex, the European Maritime Safety Agency and the European Fisheries Control Agency, support the national authorities in the exercise of these functions.
In 2014, the Commission finalised a feasibility study to examine the need for improved co-operation and co-ordination between national bodies and agencies carrying out coastguard functions. This study identifies a range of issues for closer collaboration, in particular in the areas of operational surveillance and data sharing which underpins all these functions.
The need to enhance collaboration and coordination between authorities carrying out coastguard functions has subsequently been acknowledged in the Union maritime transport legislation, the European Union Maritime Security Strategy with an Action Plan adopted by the Council in 2014 and in the European Agenda on Migration adopted by the Commission in 2015.
The purpose of this legislative proposal reinforcing European co-operation on coastguard functions is to improve cooperation and coordination between the relevant EU agencies in order to enhance synergies between their respective services, thus allowing them to provide more efficient and cost effective multipurpose services to national authorities carrying out coastguard functions.
This legislative proposal forms part of a set of measures proposed by the Commission to reinforce the protection of Europe's external borders, including European cooperation on coastguard function, which also includes proposals for a Regulation establishing a European Border and Coast Guard Agency and to amend Council Regulation (EC) No 768/2005 establishing a European Fisheries Control Agency. The substantive amendments in this proposal are identical to the proposed provisions on European coastguard cooperation in the proposal for a Regulation establishing a European Border and Coast Guard Agency and to the proposed amendments to Council Regulation (EC) No 768/2005.
• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
This proposal is consistent with the policy objectives of the European Maritime Transport Policy until 2018 and of the European Maritime Safety Agency which was established with the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform, and effective level of maritime safety, maritime security, prevention of, and response to, pollution caused by ships. It is at the heart of the EMSA's mission, competencies and activities with maritime administrations and bodies carrying out coast guard functions.
• Consistency with other Union policies
The objective of this initiative is to improve European cooperation on coastguard functions by developing cross-sectoral cooperation among the European Border and Coast Guard Agency , the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) to improve synergies between those agencies, in order to provide more efficient and cost-effective multipurpose services to national authorities carrying out coastguard functions.
The underlying problem is that coastguard functions, such as border control, maritime safety and security, search and rescue operations, fisheries control, pollution control etc., are currently carried out by more than 300 authorities in Member States, which are not always well coordinated even at national level. By promoting collaboration and co-ordination between authorities carrying out coastguard functions, this proposal is fully consistent with Union policies on migration, security, IUU fishing as well as on transport and mobility.
The additional tasks for EMSA are fully in line with European Border and Coast Guard Agency and EFCA mandates and will assist them to also fulfil their duties and tasks. There are already bilateral Service Level Agreements in place between EMSA and European Border and Coast Guard Agency and between EMSA and EFCA for delivery of maritime information services. With European Border and Coast Guard Agency the exchange of currently available data is organised since April 2013 and data is permanently streamed from EMSA into EUROSUR and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Situation Center. The established practices will be used for the enhanced data streams.
This legislative proposal is without prejudice to the Commission's commitment to bringing founding regulations of EU decentralised agencies in line with the Common Approach on decentralised agencies when being revised for policy related reasons.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
• Legal basis
The proposal is based on Article 100(2) of the TFEU on establishing provisions for the pursuit of the objectives of the common sea transport policy.
• Subsidiarity
The proposal deals with support to national authorities carrying out coastguard functions at national and Union level, and where appropriate at international level.
• Proportionality
The proposal aims at reinforcing the EU's coastguard capacity to response to threats and risks in the maritime domain by improving cooperation and promoting cross-border and cross-sector cost-effective actions. This will avoid duplication of effort while ensuring that the main actors (in particular EU agencies) act in a coherent and efficient manner and develop synergies together. It takes into account the need to have more control in the maritime area while limiting the workload for national and EU administrations.
The added value of EMSA particular activities at EU level are:
– providing valuable information to improve surveillance of the external borders of the European Union with new Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS or drones) services and continued SAT-AIS services, which otherwise would not be provided or provided to a lesser extent (aerial surveillance, which is very costly);
– providing services and data at EU level is cost efficient, due to economies of scale, which cannot be obtained by similar actions at national level;
– reuse of data and sharing of data with all concerned EU Member States and EU Agencies, avoiding duplication of effort and offering multiple use of the same data and the same services, enabling the use of new and modern technologies;
– collecting all relevant maritime data on human activity at sea in one place, offering a “one stop shop” solution, which feeds other authorities at national and EU level with this data. The ICT infrastructure and distribution network is already mostly in place and does not need to be developed again. EMSA is already providing different maritime data sets to European Border and Coast Guard Agency and EFCA for which interfaces have been established;
– the use of EMSA’s already established maritime information systems, harmonisation of existing systems and services for promoting information exchange between coastguard authorities on an EU level;
– increasing the collective skills and capacity for coastguard functions and assisting them to collaborate and act jointly, based on a harmonised approach.
• Choice of the instrument
As the purpose of the proposal is to amend Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency, it is necessary to propose a Regulation.
3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
• Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation
N/A (this initiative aims at implementing commitments contained in the European Agenda on migration referring to coastguard activities).
• Stakeholder consultations
Contents
- N/A
- N/A
- N/A
- N/A
- N/A
- Output: improving the dissemination of real time and near real time maritime surveillance data between the three Agencies and relevant authorities
- Output: flexible RPAS services for border control surveillance
- Output: securing AIS data collected by satellite
- Output: Training, distant learning and exchange of best practices, and project-based development of common or interoperable operations standards
• Collection and use of expertise
• Impact assessment
There was however a feasibility study commissioned by DG MOVE 1 , as provided in recital (30) of Regulation No 100/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 2 .
The study identified some 316 civilian and military Member States' authorities, which are responsible for Coast Guard functions and collaborating via 70 different structures. The study highlighted key shortcomings with the existing co-operation:
– the lack of information on the remit, powers and capabilities of other authorities;
– human resources, financial constraints and the limited number of operational assets;
– ad hoc coordination and lack of interoperability of systems, processes and assets;
– limited joint planning and joint operations.
One of the key findings was the pivotal role of the existing operational surveillance and data sharing which underpins all of the functions and which rely on EMSA systems.
• Regulatory fitness and simplification
The initiative is not part of the REFIT agenda but should apply its main principles.
• Fundamental rights
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
This initiative requires an increase in the EU contribution to EMSA of around 22 million per year (that is around €87 million for the 2017 to 2020 period) and the recruitment of 17 TA.
This is operational expenditure (title 3) for around €81 million mainly to cover provision of RPAS services (€67 million) and SAT-AIS and Satcom data and services to increase the surveillance capability of the 3 agencies and national authorities to strengthen as a primary objective the control of the external maritime borders of the European Union.
(See also the legislative financial statement attached).
5. OTHER ELEMENTS
• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
As this measure will be implemented by EMSA, its evaluation will be included in the 5-year evaluation of the agency, which findings and recommendations shall be forwarded by the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council and shall be made public.
• Explanatory documents (for directives)
• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal
The proposal aims at developing European cooperation on coastguard functions by developing forms of cooperation among European Border and Coast Guard, EMSA and EFCA to improve synergies between those agencies, in order to provide more efficient and cost-effective multipurpose services to national authorities carrying out coastguard functions.
EMSA will lead notably for a significant improvement of the surveillance capability to strengthen the control of the external maritime borders of the European Union through the following actions:
a. Sharing information generated by fusing and analysing data available in ship reporting systems and other information systems hosted by or accessible to the Agencies, in accordance with their respective legal bases and without prejudice to the ownership of data by Member States;
Output: improving the dissemination of real time and near real time maritime surveillance data between the three Agencies and relevant authorities
Based on the current SLA’s EMSA has with respectively European Border and Coast Guard Agencyand EFCA, maritime information is streamed into the systems of the other Agencies. When improving surveillance capabilities, data of new sensors, in particular of RPAS (including video and infrared data) should be incorporated in the maritime picture, this will require new functionalities in the current system to improve the provision of information and sharing it with the other Agencies and relevant authorities. Software developments and interface upgrades are needed to update the systems to cope with the information from new sensors.
b. Providing surveillance and communication services based on state-of-the-art technology, including space-based and ground infrastructure and sensors mounted on any kind of platform, such as remotely piloted aircraft systems;
With the current land- and satellite based technologies, it is still difficult to detect small boats made out of rubber or wood, used to get migrants across the Mediterranean Sea. These types of boats do not generally generate enough reflection to be visible on radar satellite imagery. With optical imagery only very targeted small areas can be covered, provided that it is day time and there are no clouds. Satellite information in general is only available at certain times according to the flight track of the satellites. Additional services based on RPAS (drones), can overcome these limitations.
The Agency will organise and provide, as an institutional service provider, RPAS service operations in support of European Border and Coast Guard Agency and border control authorities. In addition, EMSA as a maritime safety agency will contribute to a more friendly perception of using this technology. This technology has a multipurpose character and can be used for a variety of public tasks at sea (border control, safety of navigation, Search and Rescue, pollution detection, fishery control, law enforcement actions). Strengthening the cooperation between the Agencies will further enhance synergies and multipurpose use of the same assets.
By having EMSA providing RPAS services, European Border and Coast Guard Agency and border control authorities will substantially benefit from the service as EMSA is already collecting, processing, fusing and correlating data of human activity at sea. RPAS derived information would be handled as an additional data source, which will be added to the information streamed into EUROSUR. A scalable service is foreseen with a number of simultaneous RPAS operations in the Mediterranean Sea, to be divided for example over 4 areas of interest: Greek-Turkish border (Aegean Sea), Central Mediterranean Sea (Lybia), West Mediterranean Sea (Strait of Gibraltar) and East Mediterranean Sea (Cyprus region). The deployment should be based on mobile units, which can be relocated as new “hot spots” may develop overtime.
The RPAS services should be cheaper as manned patrol aircraft and should be used as a complementary tool in the overall surveillance chain, including satellite imagery, vessel positioning information and surveillance by maritime patrol aircraft and vessels.
Until today, EMSA, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), is providing Satellite-AIS (SAT-AIS) data services at no cost to other EU Agencies and EU Member States through its maritime applications. This data is financed by ESA up to 31st August 2016 after which the research and development programme comes to an end. SAT-AIS data is an invaluable source of information which very much enhances maritime situational awareness. It is assisting both Member States and EU Agencies and bodies (i.e. European Border and Coast Guard Agency, EFCA, MAOC-N) in their surveillance tasks. Without this data, many vessels are not able to be tracked due to the unavailability of other data sources, in particular in the south of the Mediterranean Sea, or because vessels are transiting beyond the coverage of the AIS shore-based stations and therefore cannot be monitored through terrestrial-based AIS systems (the case for activities of fishing vessels under EU flag when operating outside of the EU) .
Without SAT-AIS data, much added value will be lost and there will be a considerable decrease in the maritime situational awareness, negatively impacting the surveillance capability at external borders. It is therefore necessary to acquire SAT-AIS data.
Output: communication services, in particular SAT-COM in support of joint operations.
For the coordination and delivery of maritime surveillance data coming from RPAS and other sensors, satellite communication is required. Satellite communication is used for navigation of the RPAS and for transmitting the data collected by its payload. This is a substantial cost driver. The Agency will have to invest in interfaces receiving data from communication satellites and from the European Data Relay System (EDRS) in particular. Certainly the input of multiple data streams in different data formats simultaneously will require software developments. The presented costs do not include satellite transmission costs.
EMSA will also contribute for:
c. Capacity building at national and Union level by elaborating guidelines, recommendations and best practices as well as by supporting the training and exchange of staff, with a view to enhance the exchange of information and cooperation on coastguard functions;
Output: Training, distant learning and exchange of best practices, and project-based development of common or interoperable operations standards
Strengthening the coastguard functions of national authorities entails also education and training. Already, the Agency has established a significant training portfolio, including e-learning modules for experts of Member States, accession countries and European Neighbourhood Policy countries. This basis will be used to develop new modules and training sessions strengthening skills and capabilities at national level.
Newly developed training courses, workshops for exchanging best practices and e-learning modules as well as new specific area-related projects will help to increase capacity of coastguards, creating common standards and approaches at EU level, which will facilitate multinational cooperation and joint operations.