FantasticSearch

(1) Certain bilateral and regional agreements concluded between coastal states, such as the Helsinki and Barcelona Conventions of 1992 and 1976 respectively, provide for mutual assistance in the event of a maritime pollution incident.

(2) Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 established a European Maritime Safety Agency (hereinafter ‘the Agency’) for the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety and prevention of pollution by ships.

(3) Regulation (EC) No 724/2004, which amended Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002, assigned to the Agency new tasks in the fields of preventing and responding to pollution caused by ships, in response to recent accidents in Community waters, particularly those of the oil tankers ‘Erika’ and ‘Prestige’.

(4) For the purposes of implementing these new tasks of preventing and responding to pollution, the Administrative Board of the Agency adopted on 22 October 2004 an Action Plan for Oil Pollution Preparedness and Response, which determines the Agency's oil pollution response activities and is aimed at optimum use of the financial resources available to the Agency (hereinafter ‘the Action Plan’).

(5) The pollution response action of the Agency, as defined in the Action Plan, relates to activities in the fields of information, cooperation and coordination and above all the provision of operational assistance to the Member States by supplying, on request, additional anti-pollution vessels to combat oil pollution and other types of pollution such as that caused by hazardous and noxious substances. The Agency is to pay particular attention to those areas identified as most vulnerable without prejudice to any other area in need.

(6) The activities of the Agency in this field should not relieve coastal states of their responsibility to have appropriate pollution response mechanisms in place and should comply with existing cooperation arrangements between Member States or groups of Member States in this field. In the event of a maritime pollution incident, the Agency is to assist the Member State(s) affected, under whose authority clean-up operations are to be conducted.

(7) In accordance with the Action Plan, the Agency is to play an active role in developing a centralised satellite imagery service for surveillance, the early detection of pollution and identification of the ships responsible. This new system will improve the availability of data and the effectiveness of the response to pollution caused by ships.

(8) The additional means to be provided by the Agency to the Member States should be made available through the Community mechanism in the field of civil protection assistance interventions, including accidental marine pollution, established by Council Decision 2001/792/EC, Euratom .

(9) In order to ensure thorough implementation of the Action Plan and strengthen the prevention of and response to pollution caused by ships by expanding current anti-pollution activities, the Agency should be provided with a viable and cost-effective system for financing, in particular, its operational assistance to the Member States.

(10) It is therefore necessary to provide for appropriate financial security for the funding of the tasks entrusted to the Agency in the field of pollution response and other associated actions on the basis of a multiannual commitment. The annual amounts of the Community contribution should be determined in accordance with the procedures in force.

(11) The amounts to be committed for the funding of pollution response should cover the period 2007 to 2013, in line with the new financial framework.

(12) A financial envelope covering the same period should therefore be provided for the implementation of the Action Plan.

(13) The amount of that envelope should be regarded as the minimum needed to carry out the tasks entrusted to the Agency in the field of responding to pollution caused by ships.

(14) In order to optimise the allocation of commitments and take into account any changes with regard to activities in response to pollution caused by ships, it is necessary to ensure continuous monitoring of the particular needs for action so as to allow for adaptation of the annual financial commitments.

(15) The Administrative Board of the Agency should thus review the budgetary commitments, on the basis of a report to be produced by the Executive Director, to include any necessary adjustments to the budget of the Agency. Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 should therefore be amended accordingly,