Background

Safety at sea is high on the international agenda as well as on the agenda for all coastal states. Since 1993 the European Union has adopted several directives for improving the prevention of accidents at sea and the fight against marine pollution.

Sea transportation and offshore activities may imply serious safety and environmental impacts. Some of the key aspects are:

• Offshore energy production
• Transportation of petroleum and other hazardous chemicals and substances
• Transportation of people (e.g. cruise vessels, high speed crafts)
• Transportation of nuclear waste and other radioactive material
• Discharge of ballast water or other discharges

This calls for strategies and a range of measures in order to reduce the probability of incidents (preventive measures) as well as reducing the impacts of incidents (mitigating measures). An important instrument for this is risk management strategies and measures. Risk management strategies should be instrumental for maritime actors, at national level as well as on regional/local level. Risk management tools should support the practical decisions national and regional/local authorities have to take.

Objectives

The vision statement for the Safety at Sea project is ambitious:

No serious accident at sea that is harming human life, welfare and the environment in the North Sea Region.

The Safety at Sea project will work towards this vision by reducing the probability and impact of incidents and accidents in the North Sea. This will be achieved through a range of efforts related to harmonisation and materialisation of risk management at national, regional and local level.

Budget

The total project budget is about 5 million euro. 46% of the budget is financed by the Interreg IIIB North Sea Programme.