Harnessing preparedness and response to marine pollution in the Black Sea

Applicants will describe in their proposal the concrete and measurable results within the duration of the project and their expected impact, including indicators for the monitoring and measurement of progress.

Projects are expected to achieve the following impacts to the maximum extent possible in line with the proposed activities:

• Better understanding of roles and activities of authorities/organisations in charge of the marine environmental pollution response in the different Black Sea countries and the training schemes/offer;
• Defined causes of sea pollution, including pollution from armed conflicts, also land/rivers based;
• Training opportunities adapted to the new marine environmental challenges the Black Sea developed;
• Reinforced capacity of responsible authorities/organisations to cooperate at regional level;
• Improved/differentiated marine environmental pollution response activities skills;
• Improved capacities of the authorities/organisations to cooperate at sea basin level on defining and implementing training scheme on sea pollution, including pollution caused by armed conflicts, while integrating the expertise and best practices from other EU sea basins/countries.
• Increased knowledge about the impacts of the pollution caused by armed conflicts on marine environment and ecosystems.

The above list of expected impacts is non-exhaustive and applicants may add others if deemed relevant to achieve the objectives of this topic.

The overall objective of this topic is to prepare and adapt the capacities for a coordinated response to new challenges linked to marine pollution, with particular attention to pollution caused by armed conflicts, by authorities/organisations in charge of marine environmental pollution response activities.

This will be done by developing and testing new training curricula, based on the identification of the specific characteristics and response needs linked to sea pollution caused by, for example, ammunitions, oil leaks, and sunken vessels, as well as on the analysis of the current training offer on marine pollution response.

This topic will complement the activities implemented in the region by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), in particular under its Component 4 ‘Protection of the marine environment’.

Building on the Goal I of the Common Maritime Agenda (CMA) for the Black Sea, and in particular on Priority 5 ‘Encourage the production, management and sharing of marine and coastal environmental knowledge for effective environmental monitoring and observation’, the focus of this topic is twofold:

• Identifying specific types and impacts of marine pollution, including pollution caused by armed conflicts, that should be tackled, and prioritize the potential environmental risks (including hazardous substances, eutrophication, litter, noise) and the threats to marine and coastal biodiversity.
• Define training curricula for tackling the issues referred to in the above point, provided that these curricula are complementary and do not overlap with the existing ones.

The selected projects are expected to take stock and build on relevant experiences from EU competent authorities/organisations active in other sea basins and that have already developed experience on the objectives and activities specified in this topic.

Activities that can be funded:

Selected projects should carry out to the maximum extent possible the indicative (not exhaustive) activities listed below:

• Mapping of the authorities/organisations that are in charge of the marine environmental pollution response in the different Black Sea countries and the existing training plans;
• Identification of specific type of pollution, sea and land based, that can be considered as peculiar of specific events, including armed conflicts;
• Identification and monitoring of relevant indicators;
• Definition of the structure/elements of a regional database with comparable information/indicators;
• Mapping and analysis of the existing training programmes/curricula provided by EU based authorities/organisations related to sea pollution caused by armed conflicts;
• Definition of new specific training curricula for sea pollution, including the one caused by armed conflicts, both at Black Sea and at national level;
• Test new specific training curricula at national level;
• Implementing a regional training module, facilitating the exchange of lesson learned and best practices;
• Elaboration of recommendations on training needs to respond to sea pollution, including pollution caused by armed conflicts, in the Black Sea and on how, in the medium-long term perspective, these training courses can be adapted in order to integrate the existing training programmes/curricula on marine environmental pollution response.