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Europe focuses on better co-ordinated maritime security
By Brooks Tigner
12 November 2007
A consensus is emerging across Europe that the EU needs a co-ordinated maritime security policy enabling navies to work far more closely with national and EU law-enforcement and counterterrorism agencies than in the past.
Policy makers from both the EU and NATO stress, however, that more effective maritime security depends less on new equipment and capability and more on achieving tighter co-operation and interoperability between maritime players within each nation and in co-ordination with EU and NATO agencies.
"For the first time all nations now agree that the maritime environment must become a controlled one similar to air space," Vice Admiral Ferdinando Sanfelice di Monteforte, Italy military representative to the EU and NATO, told a half-day conference organised on 8 November by the Security and Defence Agenda think-tank.
Noting that Italy's navy welcomes and uses situational awareness information from all Mediterranean 'blue water' and littoral forces, whether NATO or EU, he said the new consensus "is a big shift in thinking and there is a proven willingness among our navies to work together."
Vice Admiral Anthony Dymock, UK military representative to NATO and EU, agreed. "There are encouraging signs that navies, national civil maritime security authorities and EU agencies such as the EDA [European Defence Agency] are making progress," he said. "This isn't navies just looking for a new role... most navies now recognise that we cannot do it all ourselves, and that the primary lead has to come from civilian actors."
Adm Dymock said: "We need a formal process to better define responsibilities and to share information such as satellite imagery and intelligence, which probably requires a new MoU [Memorandum of Understanding among participating nations]."