PROJECT N° 11

MARIS

- Progress report - April 1996 -

1. Objective

At the G7 Conference on the Information Society in February 1995 ministers approved 11 pilot projects to show the potential offered by the Information Technologies. The implementation of the pilot projects was encouraged by the G7 Heads of State at their Summit in Halifax in June 1995.

Progress in implementation is reviewed regularly (last meeting in Vancouver end of November 1995) and progress reports are established. A follow-up meeting of the Brussels Conference at ministerial level will be held in May in South Africa where progress of all pilot projects will be discussed and demonstrated.

The Maritime Information Society is one of the 11 pilot projects. Its objective is to show the advantage of a global information system by setting up specific applications. These will build on existing systems and promote interconnectivity and interoperability, which will trigger a process of enhanced international cooperation to create new services on a global scale. Sub-projects demonstrate the potential benefits of the information technologies for a broad range of maritime activities.

2. Timetable

A precise timetable for the implementation of MARIS has been approved by the administrations of the G7 States and was submitted in the progress report to the Halifax summit of the G7 heads of governements in June 1995:

- a stock taking exercice in 1995 - results will be circulated among G7 administrations early 1996;

- development of prospects for further international co-operation in 1996;

- realisation of concrete results in 1997;

- presentation of results on the occasion of EXPO'98 in Lisbon.

3. Coordination / Management

The G7 pilot projects national coordinators decided in Vancouver in November 1995 that each pilot projects should be organised according to its specific needs and that no common structure will be set up.

What has already been achieved on EU-level:

- Commission:

Project leaders in the DG's responsible for each sub-project have been nominated and are operative. Short notes are annexed on the activities in each sub-project.

- Member States:

EU Member States were asked to nominate a responsible for each sub-project in order to allow that individual project leaders get directly into contact.

- Industry:

An appropriate industry interface has been established for MARVEL, MARSOURCE, MARTRANS and SAFEMAR.

Regular MARIS coordination meetings on G7 level and bilateral contacts with the US and Japan will guarantee an adequate exchange of information on specific projects.

MARIS needs to be promoted on a greater level to guarantee the global approach. A number of workshops (e.g. Athens, Genua, Barcelona, Hamburg) and conferences (Malta and Helsinki) have already taken place or will be organised in order to get the maritime industry closer together and involved in the MARIS exercise.

Information could be made available on internet or the world wibe web.

4. Participation

It was decided at the G-7 summit in June 1995 not to restrict the pilot projects including MARIS to G-7 countries.

In order to meet the requirements of the Halifax conference, the European Commission organized a follow-up meeting with G7-MARIS project coordinators on the 18.9.1995 where it was agreed to cooperate with other non G7 - EU countries and to integrate other third countries whenever possible.

All interested maritime parties - maritime companies, ports, maritime associations, research institutes, maritimes regions - are invited to participate in the sub-projects. Expression of interest should be adressed to the national contact point or to the MARIS contact in the European Commission or in Canada.

Contacts points within the Canadian Hydrographic Service, Ottawa :

. Steve Mac Phee assisted by

. Dick Mac Dougall - tel : (613) 995-4889/4554 - Fax : (613) 996-9053

5. Financing

A number of financial means for projects under the MARIS umbrella could be identified:

- on European level the 4th Framework Programme is a possible budget with its specific programmes, e.g.

. telematics applications,

. advanced communication technologies and services,

. information technologies,

. transport,

. marine science and technology,

. cooperation with third countries and international organizations.

- on EU level a specific line on Information Society could be established.

- financial means in the Regional Policy Fund and the EU-Mediterranean initiative can be explored.