Although much has been done so far to prevent environmental incidents at sea, Montenegro does not have enough capacity to react in case of oil spills from tankers or platforms.
This was evaluated, among other things, at yesterday's presentation of the project "Strengthening capacities in case of incidents at sea".
The executive director of the Center for Ecotoxicological Testing (CETI), which is the coordinator of the project, Nada Medenica, clarified that it is being implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway in the amount of 295 thousand euros.
The partners are the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs, the Maritime Safety Administration, the Port Authority of Bar and Kotor, the Police Administration, the Navy and the Environmental Protection Agency. The expected duration of the project is 18 months.
"The accelerated development of nautical and cruise tourism in Montenegro increases the risk of various types of incidents at sea. The goal of the project is to contribute to the strengthening of professional and technical capacities in the application of the National Plan for emergency response in case of sea pollution from vessels", said Medenica.
Vladan Radonjić, Acting General Director of the Maritime Transport Directorate, assessed that a lot has been done in this area in recent years.
"The EU donation of one million euros was important, with the help of which we developed a system for a joint response and it immediately gave results, when the tugboat sank in Risan Bay. However, the capacities we have today are not sufficient for large-scale pollution in the open sea, such as collisions of oil-carrying ships and oil spills from platforms. We need the capacities that all EU countries have".
Radonjić reminded that the sinking of the ship "Erika" happened to Europe, which caused enormous pollution, when oil reached the coasts of Spain and France and caused an ecological disaster.
"Only then was the EU Maritime Safety Agency established. We believe that it is not necessary for something like that to happen, but that we should prevent it and get the means for an emergency response in time".
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