Brussels, 03/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU CRIMARIO is the name given to a new €5.5 million development project financed by the EU over five years in order to contribute to increasing maritime security in the Indian Ocean, the European Commission announced in a press release on Thursday 2 July.
The EU CRIMARIO project has just been launched and will be implemented until 2019. It aims to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the region's maritime agencies, supplying the technical assistance required by the coastal states concerned. EU CRIMARIO will thus focus on (1) helping these countries share the data they possess (from national and international maritime agencies, from the maritime industry and from NGOs), analysing these data and providing them to the relevant authorities so as to contribute to the establishment of a global information sharing network. The project will support two information centres; (2) increasing awareness of potential risks and threats in order to develop a culture of “maritime situational awareness”, and developing capacity by building on the existing information centres; (3) creating common methods to develop operational policies and, in the longer term, to improve maritime governance in the Indian Ocean and in the world.
EU CRIMARIO will take over from EU MARSIC (2010-2015), the first project launched under the Critical Maritime Routes (CMR) programme. This led to the signature of the Mombasa Protocol on Thursday 2 July between Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen in order to increase regional cooperation on maritime security.
Although the piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia has diminished over recent years, the Indian Ocean's maritime routes that transport 70% of the world's oil cargoes remain exposed to significant threats. The management of the programme is ensured by Expertise France, the French international technical expertise agency. (Aminata Niang)