13 Maritime surveillance
| (32099)
15361/10
COM(10) 584
| Commission Communication on a draft roadmap towards establishing the Common Information Sharing Environment for the surveillance of the EU maritime domain
|
| Legal base | —
|
| Document originated | 20 October 2010
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 22 October 2010
|
| Department | Transport
|
| Basis of consideration | EM of 21 December 2010
|
| Previous Committee Report | None
|
| To be discussed in Council | Not known
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
13.1 A Commission Communication on the EU's Integrated Maritime
Policy (IMP) and its accompanying action plan[59]
were endorsed by the Council in late 2007. A progress report on
the IMP, which documented actions taken and indicated future actions,[60]
was endorsed by the Council in November 2009. In addition to the
progress report the Commission presented a Communication Towards
the integration of maritime surveillance: A common information
sharing environment for the EU maritime domain, which set
out guiding principles towards establishing a "Common Information
Sharing Environment" (CISE). The Council, again in November
2009, endorsed the Communication and asked the Commission to present
by the end of 2010 a draft "roadmap" for establishing
the CISE.[61]
The document
13.2 This Communication is the Commission's proposed roadmap for
setting up the CISE. The overall aim is to facilitate integrated
maritime surveillance activity in the EU, covering the "sectors"
of maritime safety and security, border control, maritime pollution
and the marine environment, fisheries control, general law enforcement,
defence and the economic interests of the EU. And the intention
is integration through the appropriate sharing of information
by civil and military authorities, "User Communities",
in Member States and EEA member countries, so as to enhance existing
awareness of the various maritime sectors by facilitating cross-sectoral
and cross-border data sharing.
13.3 The CISE is envisaged as a decentralised information
exchange system linking all the User Communities. The Commission
says that:
- it should evolve flexibly,
in parallel with existing and planned systems developments in
User Communities;
- the diverse nature of information dealt with
by the various User Communities militates against the pursuit
of a single, all-embracing technical mechanism for data sharing;
- instead, the CISE should constitute an interconnection
between different data sources that is cost-effective and which
increases the overall efficiency of surveillance systems by filling
in existing information gaps across Europe and avoiding the duplication
of data; and
- ownership and management of data would remain
with the responsible bodies at Member State and EU level in accordance
with relevant legal instruments.
13.4 In discussing broad aspects of data handling
the Commission describes the common need of all User Communities
as being the ability to obtain an enhanced general picture of
basic maritime traffic — subject to any necessary safeguards,
this data could be shared by all users. It then describes the
specific needs of various User Communities, which would complement
the basic data, as being:
- data on illegal activities
and security threats, as gathered by bodies such as coast guards,
border guards, police and defence forces;
- fish catch information and positional information
to combat illegal fishing; and
- advanced electronic data on movement of goods,
to enable pre-assessment of the safety and security of goods.
The Commission notes that such information can be
highly sensitive and is currently only exchanged for strictly
defined purposes, often laid out in international agreements.
It says that the CISE would acknowledge such procedures by espousing
the principle that data sharing should take place on "a need-to-know
and responsibility-to-share basis".
13.5 Work towards the roadmap would involve what
the Commission terms four basic "principles" of approach,
supported by various actions ("steps"), some of which
are subdivided into subsidiary stages. The four principles are:
- an approach linking all User
Communities, including the defence community;
- building a technical framework for interoperability
— making best use of existing systems, but maintaining dedicated
(point to point connections) for certain types of data;
- civil-military cooperation; and
- specific legal provisions.
13.6 The Commission suggests that work based on the
first and third principles involves two steps. "Step 1",
to be achieved by the end of 2010, would be for Member States,
EEA countries and the Commission collectively to identify all
the relevant User Communities, defined forensically by the functions
they perform rather than their identity within national administrations.
Seven such functions are identified:
- maritime safety (including
search and rescue), maritime security and prevention of pollution
by ships;
- fisheries control;
- marine pollution preparedness and response and
marine environment;
- customs;
- border control;
- general law enforcement; and
- defence.
These functions are briefly described further in
an annex to the Communication. "Step 2", to be achieved
by the end of 2011, would be the mapping of existing data exchanges
and an analysis of gaps in information to identify where there
might be a demand for information not presently matched by supply.
The Commission's Member States' Expert Group on Maritime Surveillance,
in conjunction with sectoral working groups, would be responsible
for this work and would be assisted by a technical advisory group
with appropriate expertise. The European Defence Agency would
participate in the civil-military cooperation elements of this
work.
13.7 The Commission says that work based on the second
principle involves two further steps. "Step 3" would
be to agree upon common data classification levels for the purposes
of CISE data exchanges. This would involve two stages, the first,
to be completed in 2011, would involve a review by the Member
States Expert Group on Maritime Surveillance, assisted by the
technical advisory group, to determine data sets and classification
levels. The second stage, for completion by the end of April 2012,
would involve verification of their current practices by the User
Communities themselves. "Step 4", for completion in
2012, would be to develop the supporting framework for the CISE
by establishing interoperable services and a common technical
language to exchange maritime surveillance data in a decentralised
but secure way. The emphasis would be on simplicity, minimalising
impact for users and ease of future adaptation, although with
a rider that there could be circumstances where other specific
different techniques may be required.
13.8 Work based on the fourth principle would involve
two steps. "Step 5", to be completed in 2012, would
be to determine the access rights of the different User Communities
to the data held by each other. The technical advisory group would
consolidate input from the User Communities and the Commission
would present the findings to the Member States' Expert Group
for validation. "Step 6", would be for the Experts'
Group, in consultation with sectoral experts, to provide a coherent
legal framework for data exchange which takes account of best
practice and both national and international legal obligations
on issues such as confidentiality, intellectual property rights,
protection of personal data and ownership of data.
13.9 The Commission says that the six steps of the
roadmap will inform an impact assessment it will undertake in
preparation for the tabling, in 2013, of a formal proposal to
the Council and the European Parliament for the implementation
of the CISE. It says explicitly that the roadmap and the eventual
proposal for CISE implementation will not impinge upon matters
of national competence.
The Government's view
13.10 The Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport (Mr Mike Penning) says that:
- the Government recognises that
monitoring of the maritime domain requires international cooperation;
- moreover, even at national level, maritime issues
overlap the responsibilities of different government departments
and agencies;
- this has been recognised as part of the Strategic
Defence and Security Review, by creation of the National Maritime
Information Centre to act as a focal point for the UK and, in
parallel, meeting the CISE requirement for a single maritime data
node; and
- joining departments with a common interest and
a common maritime picture will be beneficial and add value to
many maritime activities and issues such as safety, security,
the environment, trade and energy.
13.11 However, the Minister continues that:
- while the Government acknowledges
the potential benefits of a fully developed CISE, at this stage
it has certain observations and possible reservations about some
of the details of this initiative;
- the CISE function that relates to border control
and includes the monitoring of compliance with immigration and
border control regulations is likely to build on the part of the
Schengen aquis in which the UK does not participate;
- the details of the border control function will
form part of the Commission's proposal on the European Border
Surveillance System and is expected next year;
- the Government's present understanding is that
the UK would be able to participate in all functions of CISE with
the exception of the function that relates to the monitoring of
compliance with immigration and border crossing regulations;
- it is not absolutely clear at this stage how
this specific maritime initiative fits with other EU initiatives
being sponsored by other Directorates-General in the Commission;
- for example, customs administrations have already
built an IT infrastructure to enable all transport carriers to
lodge advance electronic data on the movement of goods to satisfy
safety and security legislation in the Customs Code;
- this information is shared with other areas of
government and data is also shared with other Member States through
an EU domain managed by the Taxation and Customs Union Directorate-General;
and
- the Government will be concerned to ensure that
the CISE will not duplicate other EU information sharing infrastructures
that are already operational or in development.
13.12 Turning to the financial implications of the
Commission Communication the Minister says that:
- no definite costs have been
outlined so far, but the Commission is committed to producing
an impact assessment before presenting a formal proposal for the
establishment of CISE;
- the UK, along with other Member States and EEA
countries, will have the opportunity to shape the discussion at
that point;
- the Commission does estimate that the costs envisaged
in the preparatory work towards the roadmap would amount to between
€1.5 million (£1.26 million) and €5 million (£4.19
million) for the period 2011-2013;
- this forms part of the total amount of new funding
which the Commission seeks for a range of work to support the
Integrated Maritime Policy, as put forward in a draft Regulation
in September 2010;[62]
- also relevant is the Commission's proposal to
amend Regulation 1406/2002 to clarify the existing tasks and roles
of the European Maritime Safety Agency and to extend those tasks
to new areas under development in the EU or at the wider international
level;[63] and
- the Government is not necessarily opposed to
the work envisaged by the draft roadmap, but it will resist any
increase in budgetary provision and argue instead that work should
be carried out within existing resources.
Conclusion
13.13 The results of the process the Commission
describes in this Communication will be important. We note the
Government's prudent reservations about the details of proposal
for a Common Information Sharing Environment, particularly in
relation to duplicated activity and finance. Nevertheless we have
no questions to ask at this stage and, whilst drawing it to the
attention of the House, clear the document.
59 (29068) 14631/07 + ADDs 1-5: see HC 16-viii (2007-08),
chapter 2 (16 January 2008) and HC Deb, 3 June 2008, cols
713-735. Back
60
(31027) 14363/09 + ADD 1: see HC 5-i (2009-10), chapter 13 (19
November 2009). Back
61
(31028) 14365/09 + ADD 1: see HC 5-x (2009-10), chapter 12 (9
February 2010). Back
62
(32002) 14284/10 + ADD 1: see HC 428-viii (2010-11), chapter 4
(17 November 2010). Back
63
(32150) 15717/10 + ADDs 1-2: see HC 428-xi (2010-11), chapter
10 (15 December 2010). Back
|
