The Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Manlio Di Stefano, opened the VIP Day Italia at the Farnesina today to present the European research project EUCISE2020.
The project, financed by the European Commission with 13 million euros, aims to set up the first European space in which to share information among the maritime authorities of the Member States in view of the coming into operation by 2020 of the CISE – Common Information Sharing Environment – which forms part of the of the EU Maritime Security Strategy Action Plan.
“The ambitious objective of the CISE programme,” explained the Undersecretary, “is to integrate existing surveillance networks and systems to enable all the authorities interested to access the information necessary for their maritime activities and missions in an increasingly interconnected environment.”
Undersecretary Di Stefano added: “We are living in the so-called ‘Blue Century’, characterised by an economic, financial and social growth that is increasingly connected to the sea and to oceans. Marine environments are and will continue to be the primary source of economic and social development, especially in a country with a strong maritime dimension like Italy.”
To date, approximately 60 maritime authorities, universities, research and oceanography institutes of 15 different European countries have united into a consortium to participate in the EUCISE2020 project. The project is coordinated by the Italian Space Agency, in representation of which Commissioner Piero Benvenuti attended today’s event, while the interoperable platform for the exchange of information was developed by a Consortium of European companies led by Leonardo S.p.A.
The Italian Navy, represented at the event by the Deputy Chief of Staff Paolo Treu, played a key role in the project by developing the network specifications and managing the technical phase of the system integration with other partners. The other national players involved in the project include the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Directorate General for Fishing and Aquaculture of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and Tourism (MIPAAFT), the Coast Guard, the Guardia di Finanza, the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (CMCC) and the Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE).
