Frontex took part in COASTEX 2019 exercise organised in Catania, Italy, as part of the European Coast Guard Functions Forum.
During the event, 90 participants from 16 Member States, experts from Frontex, the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) conducted exercises to test different coast guard functions.
The exercise was jointly coordinated by the Italian Coast Guard and Guardia di Finanza with 11 naval vessels, three aircraft and three boarding teams. It featured a complex scenario simulating search & rescue operations, activities to combat illegal fishing, fight pollution and other types of illegal activities at sea. The aim was to test multipurpose operations, where different authorities work together to support various coast guard functions in the same operation.
European cooperation on coast guard functions describes the joint work of European agencies and national authorities at maritime borders. Coast guard functions comprise tasks related to safety and security at sea, such as search and rescue, border control, fisheries control, customs activities, law enforcement and environmental protection.
