On 30-31 May, EMSA in collaboration with the European Commission’s DG MARE held a hybrid workshop for interested law enforcement authorities to discuss the possible use of CISE in anti-drug trafficking operations.

The workshop followed a series of meetings and discussions which had taken place since 2022 with a group of CISE stakeholders’ law enforcement authorities. The ultimate goal is to make use of CISE for anti-drug trafficking operations requiring cross-border information exchange.

During the workshop, the representatives of the French Customs, the Spanish Customs, and the Italian Guardia di Finanza agreed on the final version of the anti-drug trafficking operational scenario. The scenario entails the use of the CISE Operational Services, namely the “Vessel of Interest (VOI) list” and “Request for Operational Assistance (Assets)”, with the aim of improving their capabilities to observe events at sea, and to respond to them even more effectively.  The participants of the workshop also outlined the implementation plan, including the technical and operational steps to be followed to be able to conduct the information exchange exercise among them.

The workshop also provided an opportunity for the participants to get informed about the political context of CISE. They also learnt about the operational use of the CISE operational services elaborated by the dedicated CISE working group. Moreover, EMSA presented the technical and operational support provided to the EU MS authorities by EMSA and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in implementing CISE.