Sea Alarm introduces the EUROWA SOP to Regional Agreements

A key element of the EUROWA Module project is to reach out to the anticipated end-users and to explain what is being developed and how the Module would benefit various stakeholders in European countries once it is up and running. The main target group are the authorities in European Member States, who are the parties likely to request the activation of the EUROWA team and its equipment.

In spring 2016, Sea Alarm attended meetings of the HELCOM Response Group (for protection of the Baltic Sea) and the Bonn Agreement OTSOPA (response in the North Sea) to update the authorities in those countries about the recent activities and results of the EUROWA project.

At the HELCOM and OTSOPA meetings updates were provided on the EUROWA Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which describes how a EUROWA team would be mobilised, what the team structure looks like, and the tasks and procedures team members take on when responding internationally to an oil spill that affects wildlife.

Since the EUROWA team is being developed to smoothly integrate into a local response system under the control of the responsible authorities, it is important that those authorities are familiar with the approaches being defined by the EUROWA team and that there are no major barriers to this integration occurring.

The draft EUROWA SOP is currently being shared with a number of countries to check that the proposed procedures are clear, and can be integrated with the various emergency response procedures that those countries operate. Lessons learned from this exchange will be reflected in the final SOP to be issued at the end of the project.