Shipping is a safe form of transport. However, when accidents do occur, the consequences can be extremely serious in terms of fatalities, environmental pollution or economic consequences for the fishing and leisure industries.To provide this safety in the 2 Seas area, the fire brigades from the four Member-States have decided to cooperate and establish a cross-border Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG EU). The objective of the project is to create and train 3 maritime incident response groups (MIRGs) in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, using the existing knowledge and skills of the MIRG team in England. The aim is to form a specialised group of firefighters using a common set of procedures for fire-fighting and incident response, on passenger ships and cargo vessels. They will implement the results of a shared training scheme based on a risk analysis of the 2 Seas area that will define common methodologies and protocol. Through the project, almost 120 French, Belgian and Dutch firemen will be trained. Expected Results: What are the key results of the project?The main result of the project MIRG-EU is 4 well-trained MIRG-teams in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK, with a standard set of operating procedures.Other results:- Risk analysis for the activities of the MIRG-teams- Training module for the MIRG-teams- Alert and assistance protocols- Disseminate of the theoretical and practical knowledge within the 2 Seas area and the rest of Europe.Are all partners and territories benefitting from the results?All partners and partner regions will benefit from the activities of this project. The MIRG EU project will specifically target the emergency services and coastguard centres of all partners as currently, they are responsible for incident management. Increasing the knowledge, skills and operational readiness enables the emergency services in all partner regions to act in a safer and more effective manner on passenger ships and cargo vessels.Final beneficiaries will include Emergency services across the 2 Seas area and further afield in the EU, port companies, salvage companies, environmental agencies, maritime agencies, economic players, coastal agencies, logistics and transport players (e.g. shipping companies)and more generally national, regional and local authorities.What are the effects / outcomes for the territories involved?At the national level, France is currently working with other coastal SDIS (Fire and Rescue Services) in order to allow them to intervene at sea with national means (navy, regional centre for surveillance and rescue). A national agreement is also currently in development and is in coherence with the MIRG EU project.The UK already has 14 fully operational MIRG teams. The project is important to the UK MIRG because it will develop greater capacity for firefighting at sea in the 2 Seas region and allow the operational policies, procedures and equipment to be developed in conjunction with other partners.The MIRG EU project contributes to the 'Cooperate and operational capacity, incident control on the Western Scheldt' project in Holland, of which organizing specialized incident respronse capacity plays a part. The project will also contribute to the national project Waterrand, which deals with incident management on Dutch waterways. Belgium has specific laws that protect the marine environment in coastal areas. MIRG EU not only complies with the objectives of this law, it also contributes to the national North Sea disaster plan.