European Maritime Safety Agency
20 years of EMSA
Since its foundation in 2002, EMSA has been at the side of the European Commission and the Member States carrying out an ever-increasing set of tasks.
20 years on, its role and mission remain as vital as ever.
Founded in 2002 in response to the Erika and Prestige disasters, EMSA’s mission is to serve EU maritime interests for a safe, secure, green and competitive maritime sector and act as a reliable and respected point of reference in the maritime sector in Europe and worldwide.
The concept of a European Maritime Safety Agency as a regulatory agency originated in the late 1990s along with a number of other major European maritime safety initiatives. EMSA was established by Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 as a major source of support to the Commission and the Member States in the field of maritime safety and prevention of pollution from ships. Subsequent amendments have refined and enlarged its mandate.
EMSA’s mission is to serve EU maritime interests for a safe, secure, green and competitive maritime sector and act as a reliable and respected point of reference in the maritime sector in Europe and worldwide.
The twenty years of EMSA is commemorated here with an informative video: http://emsa.europa.eu/20years/
Training courses
On 1 March the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) issued its Academy Course Catalogue the purpose of which is to set out, in one document, the programmes that form the basis of EMSA’s routine training activities.
The document describes those training courses which are provided for the benefit of EU Member States, Norway and Iceland, Enlargement and European Neighbouring Countries, even if these are not necessarily held every year.
While the majority of training activities are organised on a regular basis, EMSA also occasionally provides some ad hoc courses to cover the very specific needs of maritime administrations at a particular time.
Online news
Each month EMSA publishes a valuable online newsletter. It may be found here:
