Information Sharing Platform Helps EU Tackle Smuggling

EU-funded researchers have been working to optimize a common platform that makes sharing information among different maritime authorities much easier.

On 1 July 2024, the EU’s Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) became operational in a project coordinated by Isto Matilla, an expert in maritime security and information sharing at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

A hypothetical scenario: A container ship sailing at night through the Baltic Sea, travelling along the Polish coast, pulls alongside a fishing boat. This behavior immediately triggers the Polish authorities and raises questions.

“You need to ask why are two vessels meeting in the middle of the sea in the middle of the night? Are they involved in smuggling or illegal migration? Are they buying fish from the fishing vessel?” said Mattila.

As this behavior could be indicative of several illegal activities, when the ship next pulls into port, it needs to be investigated. But that might not be in Poland. It could be in Helsinki, Finland, for instance, or any of the nine countries bordering the Baltic Sea.

For the Finnish authorities to identify the ship as suspicious, they need to be alerted by the Polish maritime authorities who spotted the meetup. But this is not as simple as it sounds.

“These coast guards, environmental entities, police, have all created maritime surveillance systems operated and developed by different industrial partners in Europe,” said Mattila.

These different IT systems use different database languages and often cannot communicate with each other.

The hypothetical scenario from Mattila – who had been a navy captain with the Finnish border guard for nine years before going into research – illustrates the very real complexity of monitoring Europe’s seas.

Now, the CISE system adds a translation and information exchange layer that sits above and between all the different surveillance systems. This enables EU countries to cooperate better in tackling challenges such as people smuggling, illegal fishing, pollution and potential security threats.

All but five European countries – Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia – have a sea border, and 80% of the EU’s foreign trade is carried out by sea. Hundreds of different European authorities involved in maritime surveillance stand to benefit from this platform.

The next step towards well-coordinated monitoring of Europe’s sea borders and trade is integrating maritime surveillance seamlessly with border control and customs agencies. Work is already taking place to include them in the maritime information exchange platform.