More than 70 million tonnes of hazardous cargo enters the Adriatic on ships every year, it was said on Thursday at an event marking the completion of a project promoting safe navigation and maritime transport, called EUREKA, worth just over €3.1 million.

Sinisa Orlic, head of the Navigation Safety Directorate at the Croatian Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Ministry, said the project was of strategic importance for countries of the Adriatic-Ionian region, notably for the promotion of maritime safety in the Adriatic.

This has been ensured with the establishment of a permanent transnational navigation safety network, modernisation of the ship mandatory reporting system ADRIREP, a new, technologically simplified reporting solution, exchange of data on maritime traffic, and provision of vessel traffic services (VTS).

“Every year more than 70 million tonnes of hazardous cargo enters the Adriatic, and EUREKA is one of the ways to protect and preserve the Adriatic for future generations. When, for example, a vessel enters the Strait of Otranto, we have all the information – from who is on it, what kind of cargo the vessel carries, and which port it is headed to, to what cargo it loads and unloads,” said Orlic.

Nexhat Kapidani of the Montenegrin Navigation Safety and Port Management Directorate said the project simplified procedures regarding reporting by vessels that carry hazardous cargo and sail into the Adriatic, which was why seamen on those vessels would have less administrative work.

“This pilot project will be tested in the Adriatic and later expanded to seas like the Baltic. I think this is the first time a technology tested in the Adriatic is transferred to northern seas,” Kapidani said.

The Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), Maja Markovcic-Kostelac, said she believed the results of the project would be applied in other EU seas, which was why EMSA had joined the project.

EUREKA was launched in December 2020 and lasts until September 2023. The leading partner in the project is the Croatian Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, and the Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Communications and Transport is an associate partner.