Given the importance of maritime safety to coastal regions, a number of Interreg IIIB Programmes have been brought together under the Maritime Safety Umbrella Operation. The Operation provides a ‘trans-programme’ enhancement which links and focuses the work of Interreg IIIB projects addressing maritime safety issues (prevention, response and preparedness) and related projects (e.g. ICZM). It is the intention of the of the Umbrella Operation to link initiatives being undertaken by projects within the North Sea, North West Europe, Northern Periphery, Atlantic and Baltic Sea Region Interreg IIIB Programme Areas.

The Agency is responsible throughout the UK for implementing the Government’s maritime safety policy. That includes co-ordinating search and rescue at sea through Her Majesty’s Coastguard, and checking that ships meet UK and international safety rules. They work to prevent the loss of lives at the coast and at sea, to ensure that ships are safe, and to prevent coastal pollution Safer Lives, Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas.

They are putting increasing effort into prevention work and a measure of our success is when accidents do not happen, or where they intervene to minimise their impact.

The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) is a non-profit making organisation, involved in all aspects of preparing for and responding to ship-source spills of oil and chemicals in the marine environment.

ITOPF's history stretches back to 1968. It was established after the Torrey Canyon incident to administer the voluntary compensation agreement, TOVALOP, which assured the adequate and timely payment of compensation to those affected by oil spills. TOVALOP came to an end on 20th February 1997. As a result the membership and funding arrangements of the Federation have now changed.

ITOPF devotes considerable effort to responding to spills of oil and chemicals.

Cedre was created in 1978 within measures taken after the wreckage of the oil tanker (Amoco Cadiz), to improve preparedness against accidental water pollution and strengthen the French national response organisation. It is responsible, at national level, for documentation, research and experimentation on pollutants, their effects and the response means and tools to combat them.

They are the leading public body for protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales. Environmental Agency organization makes sure that air, land and water are looked after by everyone in today's society.

The European Maritime Safety Agency contributes to the enhancement of the overall maritime safety system in the European Community. Its goals are, through its tasks, to reduce the risk of maritime accidents, marine pollution from ships and the loss of human lives at sea.

In general terms, the Agency will provide technical and scientific advice in the field of maritime safety and prevention of pollution by ships in the continuous process of updating and developing new legislation, monitoring its implementation and evaluating the effectiveness of the measures in place.

Some of the key areas where the Agency will be active are: strengthening of the Port State Control regime; auditing of the Community-recognised classification societies; development of a common methodology for the investigation of maritime accidents and; the establishment of a Community vessel traffic monitoring and information system.

The International Maritime Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nationals, which is responsible for measures to improve the safety of international shipping and to prevent maritime pollution from ships. It also involved in legal matters, including liabilities and compensation issues and the facilitation of international maritime traffic.

Meteorological Service of Galicia (MeteoGalicia), is based on the decision of the Regional Government of Galicia (Xunta de Galicia) and supported by the University of Santiago de Compostela. It is a non-profit center located in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia Region. It was created in 2000 devoted to promote and support services and research in weather prediction, monitoring and climate applications, mainly focused on the region of Galicia.

The principal mission is to provide highly reliable meteorological prediction and climate application service for the Galician region and to promote researches focused to a better understanding of weather and climate in Galicia and Spain.

The most significant functions are:

• To provide highly reliable weather and climate forecast.
• To improve weather observation and monitoring facilities.
• To promote research and cooperation between institutions for a better understanding of the Galician climate.

MeteoGalicia develops daily predictions five days in advance for Galicia and maritime surrounding areas.

There are mainly based in two high resolution numerical models, ARPS and MM5 and others facilities such as waves and ultraviolet radiation modelling. It manages a meteorological network to ensure quality data and adequate monitoring tasks.

MeteoGalicia is developing activities to establish operational ensemble forecasts in order to enhance the forecasts performance and to expand their time range, and working with ESEOO project.

The increasing number of marine pollutions over the past few years has made this growing concern a priority for the European Commission, offering new opportunities for SMEs specialised in the field of marine pollutions.

The MAPO project, coordinated by the Technopôle Brest-Iroise, is a European project funded by the 6^th Framework Programme for Research and Development. MAPO (for MArine POllutions) aims at enhancing integration of SMEs, skilled in preventing and struggling against marine pollutions, into RTD European projects. The project is conducted by a consortium of 13 partners from 10 countries: France, United Kingdom, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Ukraine and Iceland.

MAPO started in September 2005 for a two-year period, since then, 900 SMEs have been identified by the consortium. The partners have now started to analyse the demand and the skills of these companies for Research & Development, and try and understand the reasons why there is so little integration of SMEs into European programmes for the maritime field. A constant awareness of calls for proposals and partnerships in the field of struggle against marine pollutions is being realised as well by the project partners to inform identified SMEs.

Nevertheless, MAPO also aims at creating a network for RTD in marine pollutions. Thus, industrial corporations, research centres and universities have strong potential for knowledge sharing and cooperation.

Contact : Françoise Duprat – Maud Tronchin - Technopôle Brest-Iroise – Tél. : 0033 (0) 2 98 05 44 51 - http://www.marine-pollutions.org

The MAPO project was set up in collaboration with two Parisian partners, HLP Développement and France Europe Innovation.

“Green Atlantic for Sustainable Development” is both a process of integration and development of competences and methods aimed at creating a European platform of expertise and action for maritime and environmental safety issues.

“GASD” will integrate past and current work and use this as a basis for working on environmental issues and making recommendations, from a broader perspective (economic, human resources, science etc), on durable operational solutions built on the common policies of the Atlantic area – Europe.

Contact:

Patrick SUDRE
GASD project Coordinator
Europe+ Foundation
Phone Number : + 33 (0)2 51 84 42 13
Email : patrick.sudre@europeplus.org
http://www.greenatlantic.eu/

The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) is a non-profit educational organisation dedicated to promoting the goals of saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters.