MEDEXPOL 2020: A Western Mediterranean project (West MOPoCo) offering Mediterranean and international solutions and cooperation in the field of Marine Oil and HNS pollution – Nov 03, 2020
REMPEC organised in close co-operation with the Secretariat General de la Mer (SGMer, France) an online Workshop to enhance regional cooperation in responding to Marine Oil and Chemical (Hazardous and Noxious Substances-HNS) pollution in the Mediterranean (MEDEXPOL 2020), between 27 and 28 October 2020, in the framework of the Western Mediterranean Region Marine Oil and HNS Pollution Cooperation (West MOPoCo) project co-financed by the European Union Civil Protection.
MEDEXPOL 2020 gathered more than 75 participants from 14 countries from the Mediterranean region and 7 countries from the North Sea, the Baltic and Canada, and other partners. This event was the result of a collaborative effort between the West MOPoCo project partners including the Government of Algeria, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia and expert institutions namely Cedre, ISPRA, and ITOPF, with the support of Secretariats of Regional Seas Conventions, i.e. REMPEC, HELCOM and the Bonn Agreement.
MEDEXPOL2020 presented and discussed the project achievements and innovations offering Mediterranean and international solutions and cooperation in the field of Marine Oil and HNS pollution, notably:
- The Multi-regional HNS Response Manual and the upgrade of the Maritime Integrated Decision Support Information System on Transport of Chemical Substances (MIDSIS TROCS 4.0) to enhance emergency decision-making capabilities to respond to chemical marine pollution;
- The definition of national and regional requirements toward the establishment of a Common Emergency Communication System for the Mediterranean to guarantee an efficient communication across the region in case of emergency, through a unique platform;
- The identification of synergies between Western Mediterranean sub-regional agreements and contingency plans to enhance the capacity of countries to respond to major incidents, to establish operational procedures between sub-regional agreements and ultimately set-up an interconnected network of sub-regional agreements covering the whole region;
- The inventory of operational information on national mechanisms for the mobilisation of response equipment and experts in case of emergency and update of relevant reporting systems;
- The harmonised assessment of the level of oil spill response preparedness and improvement programme which enabled the identification of national and regional gaps and measures to enhance the response preparedness of Mediterranean countries.
All documents, presentations and video recording of the event as well as the report are available on REMPEC’s event page.