Contributions to Exchange of Experience Initiatives by IMO, EMSA and Regional Organisations

1. SaferSeas / Management of Accidental Marine Pollution Seminar Contributions to Exchange of Experience Initiatives by IMO, EMSA and Regional Organisations Michel Girin Director of Cedre.

2. Exchanging Experience • Dissemination of experience: he who faced a problem presents his decisions/actions to others, who may be interested • Exchange of experience: different parties, having faced problems responding to similar situations discuss their respective decisions/actions, with the aim to do better next time

3. Examples • Dissemination of experience on response the Erika spill • Exchange of experience on response to heavy fuel spills offshore

4. The limitations • Communicating one’s experience: focusing on the positive achievements or telling the truth to the negative points ? • Party to exchange with: mutual confidence and mutual interest are required • ►A facilitator may be needed to convince the parties concerned to join and share

5. The facilitators • International: the IMO • Europe: MCMP, EMSA, The Research framework and the Interreg programmes • Regional: HELCOM, the Bonn, Lisbon and Barcelona Agreements • ►Cedre is technical adviser on marine pollution management to the French delegations at all the above

6. IMO: the R&D Forums • Worldwide seminars on particular thematics attached to the trio of International Conferences IOSC (USA), SPILLCON (Australia) and INTERSPILL (Europe) • Ex: responding to heavy fuel oil spills, Brest, 2003 • ►Exchanges between scientists, industry and administrations, worldwide, low frequency (next one : 2009)

7. Europe, DG Env, MCMP • Incidents reviews at MCMP meetings • The workshops, pilot studies, joint exercises and training sessions in the rolling plan • The Eumarex exchange of experts programme • ►Committee and plan terminated end of 2006. • ►Programme integrated in civil security exchanges in mid 2007

8. Community framework for cooperation (2000-2006) Objectives • Support and supplement Member State’s efforts in the field of preparedness • Improve Member State’s response • Promote efficient mutual assistance and cooperation Current actions • Management of a three-year rolling plan (workshops, pilot projects, exercises…) • Community Information System (CIS) • Response to emergencies (via the Mechanism)

9. Example of MCMP achievement: the EUMAREX exchanges of experts • Stays of a few days to a few weeks in a selected institution of another country • Duration of programme: 5 years (2002-2006) • Total experts exchanged: 120 • Countries first receivers: UK/Norway (18 Experts) • Country first provider: Spain (24 Experts) • ►A must for all involved in pollution response • Activities continue within the civil protection exchange programme

10. Europe, EMSA • Thematic workshops : use of dispersants, response to HNS pollution... • European reviews : oil spill recovery vessels, Eutopean cooperative projects... • GroupS of European experts : satellite imagery, spill response... • ►Progressively taking over the exchange of experience activities in the terminated MCMP rolling plan

11. Examples of recent EMSA workshops • Places of refuge: cooperation, liability and compensation •  Directive on port reception facilities for ship generated waste and cargo residues • Implementation of Directive on ship-source pollution • Pollution Response workshop for Bulgaria and Romania • Revision of MARPOL annex VI • Implementation of the HNS Convention • Training for Bulgaria and Romania on the HNS Convention • Ship-sourced Chemical Pollution at Sea: Risk, Preparedness & Response in Europe • Ratification and Implementation of HNS and Bunkers Conventions • Satellite Monitoring of Oil Spills over European Waters • Use of Oil Spill Dispersants in European Waters • ►Exchanges of experience + assistance to new members

12. Europe, Research framework programmes • Cooperative research projects on all aspects of marine pollution prevention, response and impactss • Development of improves tests, procedures and tools for response and response monitoring • ►Progressively building the European scientific oil spill response know-how

13. Examples of Cooperative Studies and Research Projects • NEEDS: EU Energy needs for the future, externalities of oil transport • DEEPP: Databank on potentially polluting shipwrecks • INTERRISK: Interoperable GMES Services for Environmental Risk Management in Marine and Coastal Areas • PRAGMA: Experimental tools to assess the extent and impact of a major oil spill • RESPIL: Experimental impact study of 2 chemical pollutants • OSH: Oil Sea Harvester, large offshore oil recovery vessel • SPREEX: Spill response experience based research needs • AMPERA: Optimisation of the EU Accidental Marine Pollution research effort • ASMA: Survey, modelling and remote sensing techniques for Monitoring and Assessment of environmental impacts of submerged oil • ►A wide variety of topics and participants

14. Europe, Interreg • Cooperative projects: • to disseminate in local communities experience established at national level, • to establish mutual assistance procedures between neighbouring communities • ►Exchange of experience at local level

15. Examples of Interreg projects • Interreg South Western Atlantic: • LOSTCONT: response to containers lost at sea. Partners from France, Spain, Portugal • EROCIPS: Emergency Response to coastal Oil, Chemical and Inert Pollution from Shipping. Partners from UK, France, Spain, Portugal • PRESTIGE: Experience gained from the Prestige incident. Partners from France, Spain • ►Exchange of experience on practical matters

16. Regional Agreements • Helcom (Baltic), Bonn (North Sea) are self financed. Barcelona benefits of an IMO/EU financed facilitator (REMPEC) • The information/services a country gets is what others bring in: incident reviews at technical meetings, mutual aid • In the most advanced: a joint oil spill response manual, joint oil spil response exercises, with intercalibration • ►Serving prioritarily operational response needs

17. Examples: Bonn agreement • The mutual information on pollution incidents • The common “color code” for slick thickness assessment • The yearly operational spills in the North Sea map • The joint oil spill response manual • The invitations to join members exercises • The mutual assistance agreement • ►Tackling all aspects of the response package

18. Dissemination and exchange of experience are permanent activities at Cedre as: • incident response archivist • technical adviser • operator of test facilities • partner in development projects • specialised trainer