Practical scenario offers safe environment to test guidelines on Places of Refuge
Transport Malta (TM) and EMSA held a Table Top Exercise on Places of Refuge for ships in need of assistance in Valletta on 1 September.
The exercise gathered representatives from the maritime administrations of EU member countries as well as several actors from the maritime industry (salvors, classification societies, insurers, etc.)
The main aim of the exercise was to test using a practical case scenario the draft operational guidelines developed with EMSAs help. The issue of accommodating ships in distress has grown in importance in the EU agenda since the incident involving the MSC Flaminia in 2012 which led to the setting up of an EU cooperation group on places of refuge for ships in need of assistance.
Source: EMSA
