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Data exchange standardisation: Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for Maritime Surveillance

The JRC provides technical support for the creation of a common information sharing system, jointly developed by the Commission and EU national authorities, in order to harmonise data on maritime surveillance.

Contributes to EC priorities:
Promoting our European way of life

The Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for Maritime Surveillance is an ongoing endeavour of the European Commission, endorsed by the Council and the European Parliament, aiming at improving the exchange of information related to the maritime surveillance across borders and across sectors.

CISE was launched by Commission Communication COM(2009) 538 Final of 15/10/2009 and further supported by COM(2010) 584 Final of 20/10/2010 and by COM(2014) 451 Final of 08/07/2014, and by the Limassol Declaration on 07/10/2012,

The aim of integrated maritime surveillance is to generate situational awareness of activities at sea and to facilitate sound decision making in various areas, e.g. maritime safety and security, border control, the marine environment, fisheries control, trade, economic interests, and law enforcement and defence.

CISE is an EU initiative providing an interoperability framework for information exchange across sectors and borders. It is involving 300+ EU and national authorities with responsibilities in maritime surveillance.

At its core, CISE addresses interoperability aspects on four levels: 1) legal, 2) organisational, 3) semantical, and 4) technical. Legal interoperability was addressed by several Communications of the Commission, Council conclusions, and alike. Organisational interoperability, which required the involvement of Member States’ authorities, was achieved through several meetings, workshops, and projects, and aimed at building awareness and trust about the exchange of information among partners not accustomed to communicate among themselves.

The JRC played a crucial role in designing the needed tools to address the Semantic and Technical Interoperability issues. Through co-chairing more than 20 Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meetings and the collaboration in several projects involving authorities from Member States, the JRC was able to produce and maintain the relevant technical documentation, ultimately leading to the key tools for the mentioned interoperability: the CISE Data model (picture) and CISE Service Model.

The Directorate-General (DG) Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MARE) led the CISE development since its inception, using the support of the JRC and other Commission’s services to progress its implementation. With the ‘Review of the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for the maritime domain: 2014 - 2019’ (European Commission 2019), the Commission launched the CISE Transitional Phase.

DG MARE entrusted the implementation of the Transitional Phase to the JRC and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The current Transitional Phase implies the evolution from the pre-operational validation network delivered by the EUCISE2020 project into a new version of the CISE network that will set up an operational environment, including more and more authorities from Member States and EU agencies.

At the end of 2023, the JRC will softly exit from the project when the Transitional Phase finishes and accompany EMSA in bringing CISE into the Operational Phase.

Summary of CISE Timeline

  1. 2009
    Launch of Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) for Maritime Surveillance
  2. 2014
    Review of CISE
  3. 2019
    Launch of the CISE Transitional Phase
  4. 2024
    Launch of the CISE Operational Phase

To find out more about the JRC's work on similar topics, explore the related JRC portfolios: