Currently, there are many different authorities and public agencies holding a huge amount of varied data related to maritime surveillance and traffic control. In order to cope with this situation and move towards a more efficient and cost-effective maritime sector, the European Commission has put forward a series of initiatives to bring together all relevant authorities of every affected areas in all member states.

This increased cooperation would also help cope more efficiently with real time events at sea. The 'Roadmap towards establishing the Common Information Sharing Environment ('CISE') for the surveillance of the EU maritime domain', is an initiative under the EU's Integrated Maritime Policy, which advocates an integrated approach to the management and governance of the oceans, seas and coasts, and fosters interaction between all sea-related policies in the EU.

In this roadmap, the Commission spells out how to bring together relevant Member States' authorities across all maritime sectors to allow for the exchange of maritime surveillance data, held by authorities such as coast guards, traffic monitoring, environmental monitoring, pollution prevention, fisheries, border control, tax and general law enforcement authorities, as well as navies.

The Roadmap has been validated by EU Member States during an extensive consultation and is a follow-up to the first Commission Communication of October 2009 which advocated for enhanced cooperation in maritime surveillance, as requested by the Council. It shall be fine-tuned by the end 2011 on the Council's request.

Exchanging data for better coordinated surveillance

This exchange of surveillance data will allow maritime authorities to gain access to better and wider data, with the aim to improve their performance in maritime rescue interventions, surveillance and illegal actions prosecution, merchant and fishing ships protection, coordinated actions in emergency situations. Environmental and pollution prevention and response authorities may also share information with maritime traffic authorities or coast guards allowing to better prevent, intercept or clean-up different pollution types at sea.

Increased effectiveness and cost efficiency in ensuring the fundamental conditions for safe, secure and sustainable activities at sea are vital for supporting sound economic growth, given that 90 % of Europe's external trade is carried out at sea, the EU's fishing fleet accounts for some 84 000 vessels and the EU's maritime regions for some 40% of its GDP and population.

Roadmap: 6 steps for establishing the CISE network

1. Identifying all user communities.
2. Mapping of data sets and analysis of gaps for data exchange.
3. Defining common data classification levels.
4. Developing the supporting framework for the CISE.
5. Defining access rights.
6. Providing a coherent legal framework

These six steps form a basis for further action. Cooperation pilot-projects are already taking place, and a full system of information sharing between the different maritime surveillance systems could be in place by 2014.