The Sub-regional Workshop on the use of RETOS was organized by the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC), Valletta, Malta, 24-26 April, 2019, in the framework of the Western Mediterranean Region Marine Oil and HNS Pollution Cooperation (West MOPoCo) project, co-financed by the European Commission´s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO).

Eighteen participants, Algeria, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia, representing national competent authorities in charge of the preparedness for and response to marine pollution from ships.

In addition, other members of the Project Consortium, amongst which including the Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution (Cedre), the Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricera Ambientale (Ispra), and the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (Itopf) participated to the workshop.

The Workshop allowed to achieve the first objectives of the Project: 1. Acquire hands-on working knowledge of the use of the “Oil Response Planning and Readiness Assessment Manual” and its accompanying Excel tool (RETOS), to identify and analyse gaps national oil preparedness and response programs; and 2. Apply a harmonized and clear approach, leading to high-quality assessment of national oil spill contingency plans, across the Western Mediterranean region.

The participants acknowledged the practicality of the tool, which enables the identification of needs at national and sub-regional level, and recommended that such a workshop is organized in other areas of the Mediterranean region so as to extend a harmonised approach to the entire region.

With the technical assistance of the West MOPoCo Project, each beneficiary country will produce national self-assessment reports including gap analysis, performance analysis and an improvement programme of their respective national oil spill contingency planning.

More information: http://www.rempec.org/rempecnews.asp?NewsID=1501