Both federal and Flemish agencies are active in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Consider for instance, the federal police or the customs conducting checks at sea, the Civil Protection intervening to force back an oil spill in the event of disasters or the military activities that are undertaken at the sea. Flemish agencies are also active in the functions such as, fishing inspectors, shipping traffic management and piloting the ships.
There is thus a need to optimally coordinate, wherever possible, the presence of all these agencies at sea. To this end, a cooperation agreement between the federal government and the Flemish Region for setting up a "Coastguard Structure" was concluded in 2005.
The Coastguard Structure regulates the consultation among the various authorities with jurisdiction over the sea. It constitutes a reference framework for the development of operational collaborations and partnerships between these authorities with the objective of being able to intervene more effectively at sea.
The DG Environment and the Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea and the Scheldt estuary (MUMM) represent the environmental interests within the Coastguard Structure. The most relevant environmental issues that are discussed within the framework of the Coastguard Structure are:
- emergency planning to cope with the situation arising from a major shipping accident,
- preparedness and deployment of the pollution control equipment managed by DG Environment,
- interactions between wind farms and other activities at sea,
- environmental surveillance and
- environmental control