In accordance with Article 22 of Regulation 1406/2002/EC establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency, the Administrative Board shall “within five years from the date of the Agency having taken up its responsibilities,(…) commission an independent external evaluation on the implementation of this Regulation.”

It was decided that a working group to carry out this task would be set up at the November 2006 meeting of the Administrative Board. Its composition is made up of Mr Francis Vallat, France, Chairman of the working Group; Mr Markku Mylly, Finland; Mr Klaus Grensemann, Germany; Cmdr. Agisilaos Anastasakos H.C.G., Greece; Mr Paul Gelton, The Netherlands; Mr Christos Economou, European Commission; Mr Brian Wadsworth, United Kingdom (for the final report and recommendations) and Mr James Wood, EMSA, acting as the WG coordinator.

The evaluation has assessed the impact of the EMSA founding Regulation, the Agency and its working practices. This involved a wide stakeholder consultation process addressing the relevant government departments of the EU Member States; third countries; labour organisations; industry associations; NGOs; Member of the European Parliament, the European Commission and EMSA staff.

The overall outcome of the evaluation report was positive and demonstrated that the Agency has added value to the sector in general and in particular to its main stakeholders, the Member States and the Commission. This evaluation reflected the efforts of the Executive Director and his staff but it also showed the level of commitment of the EMSA Administrative Board.

The report contains a number of recommendations, which the Administrative Board discussed and adopted, and are summarized as follows:

I. Changes to Regulation 1406/2002: amend article 22 of the Founding Regulation to provide for regular evaluations of the implementation of the EMSA regulation (every 5 years)

II. Recommendations related to the Agency and its working practises

• Continue to focus on activities which add value for its stakeholders;
• Develop a strategic plan covering a 5 year perspective;
• Continue in the efforts towards activity based costing and budgeting;
• Structure the annual work programmes to function as operational action plans for the given year;
• Develop the annual report to reflect actual achievements met against the targets;
• Developing project management capacity

III. Other/general recommendations

• Ensuring formal, periodic reviews of EMSA's effectiveness.

The remaining recommendations from the evaluation were also considered and relevant for the continued good functioning of EMSA, but were more of an internal nature. Furthermore, it was also suggested for the Agency to report on trends observed in the course of its activities, to provide an overview of the functioning and evolution of the maritime world to its stakeholders. It was agreed that an update on the implementation of the recommendations will be presented at future meetings of the Administrative Board by the Executive Director. As foreseen by article 22 of Regulation 1406/2002, these recommendations, together with the evaluation findings, will be forwarded by the European Commission to the European Parliament and the Council and made public.