ASAP

The Adriatic is a semi-enclosed sea, characterized by unique environmental and cultural heritage, but also by important economic activities. It is also the waterway access to the heart of Europe, thus affected by heavy maritime traffic. Despite high international standards of navigation, there is the risk of accidents at sea resulting in pollution with oil or other pollutants. In marine environments pollution does not know any border: mutual support and transnational coordinated response at sea are crucial to save the environment, to protect the citizens and to uphold local and national economy from the effects of pollution.

Based on the experience acquired in the North Adriatic, the Adriatic Sensitive Areas Protection – mechanism (ASAP) project aims at transferring knowledge and best practices from that area to the whole Adriatic basin in order to strengthen maritime protection from the effects of the spill-over of pollutants, especially in case of big-scale accidents at sea that cannot be managed by a single Country and need to be faced at joint transnational level.

ASAP combines environmental risk assessment and analysis of available and missing anti-pollution resources, with preparedness, technical capacities and response procedures in all six Adriatic Countries involved (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia): common intervention rules, i.e., the Standard Operating Procedures, will be designed for allowing joint response, with a strong focus on easing transnational communications in case of accidents. Operators and first responders of target IPA partner countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro) will be involved in a training path, so to develop the same skills and to align their knowledge with the northern Adriatic partners. Common training classes will be structured, involving subjects from Croatia, Italy and Slovenia, in order to reinforce the transnational interoperability of responders during accidental maritime pollution. Three exercises will be organized to test this mechanism in North Adriatic, South Adriatic and in Central Adriatic. At the end of the project, a road map for setting up a Permanent Coordination Plaform (PCP) will be finalised and a structured intervention mechanism promoted.