Time for a Euro-Med Coastguard Agency

The very fluid nature of international relations since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 has resulted in an ever-changing global security environment. Perceptual changes taking place in the security environment of the Euro-Mediterranean area demand a re-hink by everyone when it comes to managing sources of instability.

Since the end of the Cold War there has been a gradual shift away from traditional security concerns that focus on military threats to so-called soft-security issues that include organised crime, drug trafficking, illegal migration, and terrorism which is dominating strategic analysis.

The Mediterranean is already a geo-strategic area where numerous sources of instability risk escalating and threatening regional and international stability. Such developments dictate that a more co-ordinated approach towards security in the Mediterranean should be adopted if sources of instability are to be contained. The common bond that all Mediterranean states share is their maritime heritage and the security threats that result from such a common geographical reality.

At the moment there are no elaborate mechanisms to contend with security crises as an accidental collision at sea between transport tankers crossing through the choke points of the Mediterranean basin, such as the Sicilian Channel. Very little practical measures are also being taken to tackle the alarming rate of degradation that is currently taking place in the marine environmental sector. As a result, marine biology and everything linked to maritime activities, including tourism, is suffering more and more year in and year out.

Two other sources of instability that have benefited from the security vacuum that exists are traffickers in drugs and human beings. The ever increasing proliferation of drug consignments which are reaching ever deeper into the civil societies of the Mediterranean and the accentuation of illegal migratory flows from south to north risk have already negatively affected the lives of millions of people in the Euro-Mediterranean area and risk destablising the legal structures of all Euro-Med partner states. Malta has now also emerged as a front-line state in this type of activity.

At this point in the Euro-Med Partnership process a concerted effort should be made to immediately take incremental steps towards setting up an early warning mechanism that can assess the significance of such security issues and their likely impact on Euro-Med relations. Once this has been realised the co-operative maritime security network can be instructed to draw up optional policy positions on security issues that are regarded as the most serious.

Such an exercise in itself will raise awareness of the vulnerable position Mediterranean states are currently in and the weak defence mechanism they have at their disposal to cope with such security threats.

Malta is very well positioned to immediately investigate the feasibility of setting up a Euro-Mediterranean Coastguard Agency (EMCA) that would be mandated to co-ordinate the co-operative security network with a mission statement and plan of action similar to those carried out by a coastguard. EMCA could initially carry out stop and search exercises in two principal areas: maritime safety and maritime pollution. This phase could be enhanced at a later stage by monitoring other aspects of security that include narcotics trafficking and the transport of illegal migrants.

It is essential that this initiative should be introduced in as flexible a manner as is possible. Such an early warning mechanism should be open to any of the Euro-Med partner states that wish to participate. Those countries with the most experience in the area of maritime co-operation, such as Italy and Spain, should share their expertise with other willing and able Mediterranean states.

If such an early warning mechanism is to start functioning any two or more Euro-Med states should start co-operating in specific sectors, such as that pertaining to maritime safety, without having to wait until all other states are ready to participate. This will enable EMCA to evolve along sub-regional lines.

As EMCA widens and deepens its activities attention can also be given to the feasibility of establishing a fully-fledged Euro-Mediterranean Coastguard at a later date, perhaps as part of the EU's Neighbourhood Policy towards the Mediterranean.

In addition to strengthening political and security channels of communication, the establishment of such a Euro-Med crisis management network will assist in cultivating more intense crisis management mechanisms in an area where these are lacking. Practical confidence building measures will enhance the level of trust between Euro-Med states and therefore set the stage for a more intricate security strategy to follow.

Additional areas where partnership-building measures can be introduced include conducting simulation exercises of oil spills, ensuring that international standards are observed during the cleaning of oil tankers, and monitoring the activities of non-Mediterranean fishing boats that are operating in the Mediterranean with a particular emphasis on over-fishing.

The neglect of such security risks has already had severe consequences in some parts of the world that have seen their entire ecological and service industries wiped out overnight. The natural geographical characteristics of the Mediterranean expose it to even more serious consequences should any of the above security risks continue to take place unchecked. It is therefore in all Euro-Mediterranean states' interest to seek the creation of such a network in the shortest time frame possible. Malta's Euro-Mediterranean foreign policy vocation positions it well to advocate the establishment of such a security mechanism.

Dr Calleya, an international relations analyst, has published extensively on the topic of security in the Mediterranean and his new book is entitled Evaluating Euro-Mediterranean Relations (Routledge, 2004).