EuroMed Cooperation on Maritime Safety and Prevention of Pollution from Ships - SAFEMED

The SAFEMED project is being implemented by REMPEC since January 2006 and until the end of 2008, under the overall coordination of the European Commission and with technical backstopping from IMO.

The SAFEMED Project is a response to the interest of the European Union (EU) to develop Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the field of maritime safety and security and prevention of pollution from ships, by providing technical advice and support to the non-EU Mediterranean countries included in the group of “Mediterranean Partners” as defined in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership established in the 1995 Barcelona Conference. The 10 Mediterranean Partners are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey.

The primary objective of the SAFEMED Project is to mitigate the existing imbalance in the application of maritime legislation in the region between the EU Member States and the Mediterranean partners that are not members of the EU, through promoting a coherent, effective and uniform implementation of the relevant international conventions and rules aimed at better protection of the marine environment in the Mediterranean region by having safer shipping and preventing pollution from ships.

The main activities of the Project:

• Effective flag State implementation and monitoring of classification societies
• Safety of navigation through the development of traffic monitoring systems
• Protection of the marine environment
• Human element
• Security of ships and Port facilities in the Mediterranean region