Toward a better European Maritime governance: the EUCISE2020 project

Integrated Maritime Surveillance is the effective understanding of all activities carried out at sea thatcould impact the security, safety, economy, or environment of the European Union and its Member States,according to the Integrated Maritime Policy and the European Maritime Security Strategy of the Eu-ropean Union. Enhancing information exchange between maritime surveillance authorities is one of thekey strategic objectives of the European Union under the Integrated Maritime Policy. On this conceptis based EUCISE2020, a Security Research project of the European Seventh Framework Program aim-ing to achieve the pre-operational Information Sharing between the maritime authorities of the EuropeanStates. EUCISE2020 is an important milestone in the roadmap for implementation of the European CISE– Common Information Sharing Environment, and it represents the European test-bed for the maritimeCommon Information Sharing Environment in the 2020 perspective. EUCISE2020 will promote technicalinnovation and future sustainability of solutions developed, aiming to be the reference implementation ofCISE and one of the actions of the European Action Plan for the European Maritime Security Strategy.The project, coordinated by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), involves 37 partner organizations from 16 Eu-ropean countries: maritime Authorities, Oceanographic Institutes, experts; it is funded by the EuropeanCommission DG ENTERPRISE and is under the strategic direction of DG MARE, owner of the IntegratedMaritime Policy and the implementation of the CISE. The implementation plan of EUCISE2020 consistsof three consecutive phases devoted to the different types of activities that need to be carried out duringthe overall project duration period of 38 months:•Definition of user requirements to achieve the com-mon information sharing system;•Implementation, testing and demonstration of CISE pre-operationalplatform, with the support of a consortium of European companies chosen through an European pub-lic tender;•Evaluation of capabilities built and their demonstrated benefits for European society andeconomy; proposed standardization and governance to achieve a sustainable large-scale operation of the implemented solutions. This paper aims to give a comprehensive description of the EUCISE2020 projectand to provide an overview of the status and objectives so far achieved.