European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)

Based in Lisbon, the EMSA provides technical assistance and support to the EU and member countries in developing and implementing EU laws on maritime safety, pollution from shipping and maritime security. It also has responsibilities in the areas of preventing and responding to oil spills, vessel monitoring and long-range identification and tracking of vessels.

EMSA's activities include:

Inspecting the inspectors in technical areas, enabling the EU to ensure compliance with the rules and fair and equal conditions for shipping across the EU and beyond.

Examples of inspection activities:

• helping evaluate the Classification Societies listed as ‘Recognised Organisations’ by the EU
• helping evaluate maritime training systems in countries outside the EU
• checking that foreign ships calling at EU ports are adequately inspected
• inspecting vessel traffic monitoring systems, and port waste reception facilities, in the EU
• putting systems in place to ensure consistent investigation of marine accidents (EMCIP database)
• training in fields like effective information sharing and maritime safety issues.

Providing software and expert services for maritime safety tasks in EU countries.

EMSA’s software applications include:

• SafeSeaNet (SSN) for vessel traffic monitoring within European waters
• The EU LRIT Data Centre, for tracking the location of all EU-flagged vessels worldwide
• CleanSeaNet (CSN) for delivering satellite images to identify pollution at sea
• THETIS, for centralising data on Port State Control, and supporting the targeting of ships with a poor safety record

Combating marine pollution in the event of a major oil spill. EMSA contracts oil recovery ships which are on standby to provide at-sea oil recovery services, within a matter of hours, to any EU country threatened by large oil spills.

Established: 2002
Director: Willem de Ruiter