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Three-day long coast guard exercise takes place in Troia, Portugal

2017-05-26

Representatives from 20 European countries with sea borders joined Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, along with officials from the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) in Portugal to move forward with the cooperation on European coast guard functions.

During the three-day Coastex2017 Coast Guard exercise hosted by the Portuguese presidency of the European Coast Guard Functions Forum, vessels, helicopters, airplanes and 90 observers from European Coast Guard authorities conducted exercises to test different coast guard functions. The scenarios tested were: detection of migrants, search and rescue, medical evacuation, pollution, illegal fishing, boarding of a ferry transporting a dangerous person, seizure of drugs and arrest of the traffickers.

“I am delighted to see vessels and helicopters from Italy, Spain and Portugal as well as coast guard officers coming from Germany and observers from 20 European maritime countries taking part in this exercise,” said Berndt Koerner, Frontex Deputy Executive Director.  

“Running exercises is crucial if we want to be effective at sea because it helps us test the best ways of working together in a variety of scenarios. The aim of this particular exercise, and the numerous seminars taking place behind the scenes, is to develop the best way of conducting coast guard operations together,” he added.

Coast Guard organisations differ from country to country in Europe. In some, the coast guard is mainly responsible for search and rescue, while other national authorities also cover responsibilities related to law enforcement, fisheries, maritime safety or pollution control.

Frontex has been working hand in hand with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) to cover the full scope of coast guard functions that go beyond border management. Vessels and aircraft deployed in Frontex operations are already collecting and sharing information to be used for fisheries control, detection of pollution and compliance with maritime regulations. The agency closely cooperates with law enforcement bodies of member states to combat serious cross-border crime at sea, including trafficking of human beings and terrorism.

For more information on Coast guard functions, see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBznMZChim8

https://frontex.europa.eu/faq/key-facts

http://www.ecgff.eu/