Launched on 15 January, the pilot project BLUEMASSMED aims to strengthen maritime surveillance cooperation between Mediterranean neighbours and their Atlantic approaches. It is part of the development of a European maritime surveillance network and more particularly part of the action that comes under the heading ‘Creation of a common environment for sharing information’. In all, 37 administrations from six member states (France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Portugal) have made a commitment to improve information-sharing.

BLUEMASSMED’s aim is to test the capacity of the six member states to cooperate in surveillance and in the exchange of information in the areas of border control, fighting drug traffickers, countering terrorism and the smuggling of illegal products and preventing marine pollution. It is a two-year project (2009-2011) made up of two phases. The first one, which needs to come to a definition of the needs in terms of the exchange of information, will see a list of technical and legal proposals drawn up. The second will end up with a demonstration and has a wider target audience than just the project partners. It will end up in the implementation of a demonstrator linking together maritime surveillance systems in a network in the context of realistic scenarios.

In practical terms, a steering committee, a coordination group and four working groups have been set up to work on four aspects: 1. the identification of areas to extend sharing to, proposals for a future European maritime surveillance network; 2. targeted analyses and proposals relating to legal obstacles; 3. creation, upkeep and making available a situation distributed to committed partners, obeying the desired criteria (exhaustiveness, renewal, automaticity); and 4. control over the distribution of information..