The Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat of the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme invited the leaders and core partners of the first call for the project platforms as well as the coordinators of the EUSBSR to a kick-off meeting on 17 October 2018 in Riga.
The project platforms gather projects with similar objectives, or complementary aims, in the same field, to find synergies between the initiatives, and to enable scaling up the dissemination of results and the impact of the projects. It is also a way to ensure sustainability and longevity of the initiatives. The CBSS Secretariat, as the coordinators of PA Secure in the EUSBSR, is supporting the ResQU2 Project Platform “Enhancing the durability of learning experiences gained in ChemSAR, HAZARD, DiveSmart Baltic and Mirg-Ex projects on guidelines, operational plans and procedures and exercises related to incidents at sea and in ports”.
The ResQU2 Project Platform consists of four projects focusing on improving the fire and rescue services capacity to respond to accidents in ports and at sea. The HAZARD project focuses on accidents with harmful chemicals in ports (EUSBSR flagship under PA Secure), ChemSAR – on maritime search and rescue, while DiveSMART Baltic – on passenger ship accidents. The fourth project, MIRG-EX, trains response teams to manage incidents on board of ships. The aim of the ResQU2 project platform is to develop joint guidelines, procedures, and institutionalise frequent joint exercises.
CBSS Secretariat’s Civil Security team was invited to the meeting to support the ResQU2 Platform. Nina Jernberg and Andriy Martynenko presented examples of linkages between the platforms activities and the policy processes and contributed to the planning of the ResQU2 event at the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Conference in Lubeck, Germany, on 9 – 10 April 2019.