The Director for CSDP and Crisis Response of the European External Action Service, Stefano Tomat, explained, on Thursday 25 February, that Europeans will be present in the Gulf of Guinea throughout 2021.
On 25 January, Member States launched the concept of a ‘coordinated maritime presence’ in this area, which is heavily affected by piracy, armed attacks and illegal fishing (see EUROPE 12643/12).
“Member States have a strong presence in the region and support the implementation of the concept of a coordinated maritime presence. We share presence planning, information is collected and analysed and, through synchronisation, we can count on a continuous presence of European assets throughout 2021”, explained Mr Tomat to the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence. According to him, this year there will be two Spanish, two Italian and two Portuguese ships and a French presence that has yet to be defined. “Maybe two or three ships or maybe more”, he added.
“A continuous and coordinated presence will be the support point for EU actions in the area”, explained Mr Tomat.
The Europeans are also currently discussing the mechanism for advising and strengthening the capacities of coastal states, which will, in principle, include teams of experts. “It is currently being evaluated to see the scope and modalities of implementation”, Mr Tomat said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)