On the 15th and 16th of May 2024, the Project CISE-ALERT held its 5th Steering Committee and 4th Consortium meetings.
The events were hosted by the French Customs Coast Guard National Directorate (DNGCD) in Le Havre, France and gathered (in person and online) representatives of the CISE-ALERT Consortium, European Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen), French General Directorate of Defense Technologies (DGA), Spanish Guardia Civil and End-Users.
The 5th CISE-ALERT Steering Committee (SC) Meeting was opened by Ms. Frédérique Louis, Deputy Director of DNGCD, who outlined the added value of CISE for the maritime sector in the EU and once again expressed her support to the project.
During the SC meeting, the project partners presented the ongoing activities related to the CISE-ALERT trials preparation, execution and assessment.
Under Work Package 4 - Endurance Trial preparation, the CISE-ALERT Consortium has delivered a comprehensive plan (Operational plan) for establishing a timeline for the execution of the endurance trials, which provides detailed descriptions of each scenario, as in the same time addresses administrative aspects such as reporting.
Another key point of the meeting was the work in progress under WP 5 “Operational validation”, which aims to confirm operational interoperability between partner systems under real operational conditions and on an adequate scale.
Special focus was put on the feedback and lessons learned from the first CISE-ALERT trial executed by the Hellenic Ministry of Defence that took place on the 25th and 26th of April. This trial that was dedicated to combatting illegal trafficking at sea was successfully completed with the participation of the Bulgarian Executive Agency “Maritime Administration” (EAMA) and the Slovenian Maritime Administration (MzI).
At the end of the SC meeting, the participants visited the harbour of Le Havre, where they discussed how CISE will enhance the work of the involved parties and will contribute to the process of tackling the existing economic and security issues.
The 4th Consortium meeting (CM) provided an overview of each of the defined within the project operational trials, namely: Drug trafficking, Illegal immigration, Search and rescue, Pollution response, Pre-clearing customs operations, Illegal fishing, Protection of critical maritime infrastructures.
At the end of the day, all partners and CISE-ALERT stakeholders were invited to SAVE THE DATE for the CISE-ALERT Show case event, which will take place on the 11th and 12th of September 2024 at the Italian Space Agency Headquarters in Rome, Italy.
The overall results of the project will be presented during the Final conference of the project, which will be hosted by the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium on the 17th of October 2024.
