Background
The concept of the Handbook was first developed by the European Commission in a discussion paper presented at the first Annual European Coast Guard Event (AECGE) in Spain in April 2018. The Member States, through the administrative/management boards of each of the agencies, then nominated experts to help develop the Handbook. In parallel, a small inter-agency working group was set up to deliver the first edition. The project was launched during a kick-off workshop in Lisbon hosted by EMSA on 29 January 2019 and attended by the Member State experts. Before the workshop, a discussion paper was prepared by the inter-agency working group, endorsed by the Commission, then circulated to the workshop participants. Member States and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States nominated 43 experts to take part in the drafting process. The Commission was represented at the workshop by the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE).
The discussion paper proposed three main elements for the Handbook, namely:
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catalogues of services, products, training courses, best practice guidelines and manuals of all inter-agency activities supporting coast guard functions in Member States;
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regional cooperation frameworks; and
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‘country factsheets’ providing details on the structure and organisation of coast guard functions.
This approach to the content of the Handbook was generally endorsed by the representatives from the Member States and by the Commission. It provided the foundation for the drafting process and the continued dialogue with the Member State experts.
The Commission Recommendation establishing a Practical Handbook on European Cooperation on Coast Guard Functions was adopted on 20/07/2021 and can be accessed here https://ec.europa.eu/oceans-and-fisheries/publications/handbook-european-cooperation-coast-guard-functions_en.
Users of the Handbook
The main end users of the Handbook are the national authorities for each coast guard function in each Member State. The Handbook aims to support national authorities in charge of planning and coordinating activities, who need to know and understand how their partners are organised and what services and cooperation they provide.
Objectives of the Handbook
The objectives of the Handbook are to:
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describe all the cross-sector services available through the agencies, and provide a guide for the Member States and agencies on how to access those services;
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provide an overview of training opportunities and manuals developed by the agencies and how to access them;
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provide an overview of existing cooperation mechanisms with a coast guard function which relate to Member States’ practical work;
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provide Member States with factsheets listing the national authorities involved in coast guard functions, including their points of contact.
The Handbook has been developed as a practical guide and includes references to best practice for end users. It does not seek to cover all the services available but aims to describe these services and provide a guide for Member States and agencies on how to access them, as appropriate. The catalogues and factsheets, which complement the Handbook, may be amended over time to mirror any regulatory changes or modifications to inter-agency and Member State cooperation.
The Handbook covers existing activities in the area of coast guard functions and is an entry point for Member States’ national authorities to obtain the information referred to above. The Handbook is not meant to influence the legal mandates/obligations of Member States or agencies and should not be used to promote aspirational activities by stakeholders (i.e. it is not a ‘wish list’ of potential activities).
At national level, reference is made to all entities, including those which may not be represented in EFCA, EMSA or Frontex, i.e. navies or custom authorities.
Scope of the Handbook
The Handbook:
- covers the five inter-agency cooperation areas;
- is mainly limited to cross-sector subjects;
- covers single-function subjects that may fall within the remit of at least two agencies (e.g., maritime surveillance);
- covers EU Member States and EFTA States;
- includes Member States’ input in the form of factsheets, including identifying existing regional and international cooperation mechanisms;
- includes all entities (civil or military) with a responsibility for coast guard functions (e.g., a Member State’s navy with a coast guard function will be covered).
Please note that the Handbook does not cover coast guard functions that are not within the remit of the agencies’ mandates.
Content of the Handbook
The Handbook, complemented by the catalogues and factsheets, is comprised of the elements described below.
- The Service Catalogue is focused on inter-agency services currently available to Member State stakeholders and which support the carrying out of coast guard responsibilities.
- The Training Catalogue, which is an integral part of the agencies’ capacity-building activities, covers all training courses provided by the three agencies (in all maritime domains) that are currently available to Member State stakeholders. These training courses are arranged either by a single agency or jointly by two or three agencies.
- The Best Practice Guidelines and Manuals Catalogue aims to cover all best practice guidelines and manuals available to stakeholders through the three agencies. These best practice guidelines and manuals are provided either by a single agency or jointly by two or three agencies. In addition, there are several long-established regional cooperation arrangements within and beyond Europe involving EU stakeholders. Within these arrangements, numerous best practice guidelines and manuals have been developed which are deemed relevant for the Handbook, and appropriate references have been included in the Manuals Catalogue.
- The section on regional/international/bilateral/multilateral cooperation provides a representative sample of some of the coordination and cooperation mechanisms that exist in Europe and beyond, across the full spectrum of coast guard functions. A dedicated section (available through the dedicated online platform) captures a good number of these mechanisms, and each of these is linked to the individual country factsheets (see below). This allows each country to indicate if they participate in each of those mechanisms.
- The country factsheets aim to identify which organisation is involved in which specific coast guard function in each country. The template for the factsheets was developed in consultation with the experts nominated by the agencies’ administrative/management boards, and the templates were then populated by the individual countries.