CISE High-Level Event featuring Project CISE-ALERT, Brussels

 “I welcome the great work done so far with a number of Member States and I'm here to pass an important message: I strongly encourage more authorities to join this initiative. The more connected we are, the better equipped we are.”

With these words, CISE High-Level Event was opened by Ms. Charlina Vitcheva, Director General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, European Commission.

The event, featuring Project CISE-ALERT Final Conference, took place on the 17th of October 2024 in Brussels and was jointly organized by the European Commission, European Maritime Safety Agency and Project CISE-ALERT. Its purpose was to promote the launch of the Operational phase of CISE and to provide an update of the results and operational trials, carried out within Project CISE-ALERT.

The discussions were organized in four panels, involving high-level speakers from the European Commission’s DG MARE, DG MOVE, DG HOME, EMSA, EEAS, EDA, SATCen, FRONTEX, representatives of the Member States maritime and coast guard authorities and partners of Project CISE-ALERT.

The opening panel of the event was dedicated to the importance of CISE in maritime security and surveillance and was addressed by Ms. Beate Gminder, Acting Director General at for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), European Commission, Ms. Fotini Ioannidou, Director General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), European Commission, Ms. Maja Markovčić Kostelac, Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and Rear-Admiral Pierre Rialland, Deputy Head of the French General Secretariat for the Sea (SGMer).

The second session of the event put the focus on CISE as a key tool for the implementation of the EU Maritime Safety Strategy and provided valuable input on the cooperation with non-EU partners, civil-military cooperation (MARSUR-CISE connection), inter-agency and coast-guard cooperation, the contribution ofCISE to the environmental protection as well as the future development of CISE as a classified network. The topics were discussed by Ms. Alison Weston, Senior Coordinator for Maritime Security, EEAS, Rear Admiral Giuseppe Aulicino, Head of 1st Department, Human Resources, Italian Coast Guard, Captain Ventsislav Ivanov, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Maritime Administration (EAMA), Mr. Stefano Cont, Capability, Armament and Planning (CAP) Director, European Defence Agency, Mr. Louis Tillier, Director of SatCen, EU Satellite Center, Ms. Lotje Van Der Made, Director of Operational Planning Division a.i., FRONTEX, Mr. Valtteri Viitala – Counsellor for Justice and Home Affairs, Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU.

The discussions were focused on the importance of CISE in the maritime security and surveillance, the key role of CISE in the implementation of the EU Maritime Security Strategy and its current and future areas of use. As a result of the dialogues, strong messages for inclusion of more authorities in the CISE initiative were sent to the Member States, putting the focus on the mutual trust which CISE establishes, not only between different countries, but also among different national authorities with responsibilities in maritime safety and security. 

The final session of the event was dedicated to the results from the implementation of Project CISE-ALERT. During this panel, the CISE-ALERT project partners presented the benefits of using CISE in real operations at sea.

The CISE-ALERT session was opened by Mr. Eric Turquet de Beauregard, Head of Coast Guard and Law Enforcement Unit in the French Secretariat General for the Sea-Prime Minister (SGMer), coordinator of the project, who addressed the audience:

“For many years CISE was perceived as a concept, as a theory but no one could really see the added value of the tool and as a consequence, it was difficult to test CISE with a real data. But all the work that has been done throughout these two years, to see now that CISE is operational, that it is useful in any kind of operations …, reflect the fact that military and civilian authorities can take benefits from CISE. Last but not least, CISE strengthens the decision-making process as well as cross-border and cross-sector coordination.

For SGMer, it was such an honour to manage this project and I would like to warmly thank all stakeholders who supported and participated to the project CISE-ALERT is now almost completed, but the CISE adventure is not over. We are entering a new era and France will remain committed to further CISE developments at our level but also at European level. We want you, the Member States that are not yet in the project, please, come and join! You will see the benefits you can take from this very interesting project!”

The opening of the CISE-ALERT session was further addressed by Mr. Luca Maria Vincenzo Salamone, Director General of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), partner in the CISE-ALERT project. He assured that ASI will continue to support CISE, by enabling the sharing of satellite images to national entities and European agencies and by managing the Italian CISE node in the Operational phase of CISE.

The overall idea and results of the CISE-ALERT project were introduced by Ms. Florence Wagner and Ms. Linda Bama - Tandia, representatives of SGMer, coordinator of the project.  The purpose of CISE-ALERT was to test the functionalities of CISE in real operational environment, by exchanging real data between the legacy systems of operational centers from different Member States, based on pre-defined scenarios.

The project, which received co-financing from the EU’s European Maritime, Fisheries and Agriculture Fund, included 11 beneficiaries from France, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and 2 associated partners from Finland and the Netherlands. 

For the purpose of the project, realistic scenarios were created, dedicated to Drug trafficking, SAR, Pollution response, Pre-clearing operations, Illegal fishing, Protection of critical infrastructure and Illegal Immigration. Four of the seven scenarios – Illegal immigration, SAR, Pollution response and Protection of critical infrastructure, were successfully deployed so far through the CISE-ALERT operational trials, by testing five CISE operational services and thus proving CISE as operational and ready-to-use.

Even with three use-cases still to be tested, CISE-ALERT has achieved the overall goals set by the EU for the project proposal, which had required the use of at least two CISE services to be tested through the deployment of at least three use cases. 

To demonstrate how CISE really works, the session continued with a presentation of Mr. Miran Bordon Head of development and EU project section, Slovenian Maritime Administration, Ministry of infrastructure, who provided an example how CISE can be used for protection of the critical maritime infrastructure. In addition to the implemented CISE-ALERT trial, on the 2nd of October the Slovenian Maritime Administration took part in Adriatic Sea SAREX exercise 2024 with the participation of three EU agencies and three Member States, as one of the activities was testing of CISE through four scenarios. 

The next presentation was focused on how CISE can be used for pollution response and was presented by Ms. Krasiyana Nikolaeva, Head of Projects Unit, General Directorate “Emergency-Response Activity”, Bulgarian Maritime Administration (EAMA). CISE has proved its efficiency as a strategic tool, that can improve the mutual cooperation between the EU Member States in terms of detecting, monitoring and sanctioning vessels, polluting the maritime environment across EU.

The implemented by EAMA Pollution response scenario within the CISE-ALERT project, represents example of probable actions and information exchange trough CISE, aiming to elaborate a pattern for operational use between the CISE Node holders, allowing them to react in similar cases.

Aa direct benefit of the performed trial, it was proved such use of CISE could reduce time for communication, investigation, and workload of the persons involved in the mutual environment protection activity in the European waters. CISE also proved to greatly enhance maritime awareness on different information layers and to provide simultaneous update of situation to all involved parties.

In addition to CISE Operational Scenario “List of Russian sanctioned vessels” was elaborated by the Bulgarian Maritime Administration together with EMSA during the Transitional phase of CISE. Using the CISE Network, within this scenario, EMSA distributes the information to the InBulMarS (EAMA’s Legacy system) automatically. The scenario was successfully tested and now the service is fully operational and being used on a regular basis. 

Further during the session, each of the CISE-ALERT partners shared the benefits from the implementation of the project, which included not only technical developments, but valuable experience, exchanged now-how and established cooperation with national stakeholders as well with authorities from the different Member States.

At the conclusion of the event, Mr. Sergio Bryton, external advisor in the CISE-ALERT project highlighted the importance of the implemented technical developments within the project but also the exemplary and essential collaboration between EMSA and the consortium. He also spoke about the trust between different authorities and in technology that CISE actually facilitates, the voluntary character of CISE and its benefits, the implementation of the Common Environment in third countries and the political factors behind that. In conclusion, he noted that with its results, CISE-ALERT should be considered a milestone in the EU maritime security.

The CISE High Level Event was closed by Ms. Delilah Al Khudhairy, Director A, DG NARE, who defined the event as a success and an actual milestone, pointing out that CISE is operational and ready to use in a civil context and that the efforts to build upon the already achieved should continue, in order to prepare CISE for military use. CISE is one of the key deliverables of the European Maritime Security Strategy and it helps to build the community that needs to be engaged to prepare, anticipate and respond to crises securely on multisectoral level. 

In conclusion, the key message of Ms. Khudhairy was that “CISE is ready and we are here to help you. We can take CISE forward together!”

You can watch recording of the whole event at the following link:

 https://www.youtube.com/live/89oM0nkCYks?si=yQypa1vaZ1Y68mgs