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Belgium and The Netherlands ratified the Bonn agreement. This agreement is the oldest agreement by which the North Sea states work together to help each other in combating pollution. The mutual aid refers to maritime disasters and chronic pollution from ships and offshore installations; and to carry out surveillance as an aid to detecting and combating pollution at sea (“Bonn Agreement | Working Together For Cleaner Seas,” n.d.). The area covered by the Bonn agreement is presented in Figure 4. Finally, the OSPAR convention (Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) is the mechanism by which 15 Governments & the EU cooperate to protect the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic¹.

Figure 4. Area covered by the Bonn agreement.

Source: (“Noordzeeloket | Government of The Netherlands | Maritime zones in the North Sea,” n.d.)

As seen in Figure 4, the area covered by the Bonn agreement overlaps with the North See. Noticeable is that within this area, there are three quick response zones. One of these zones covers the coastal area of Belgium and the Netherlands, in the vicinity of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam respectively. In a Quick Response Zone, immediate actions must take place in maritime accidents and each Party has the right to start response actions immediately regardless in whose National Response Zone the pollution has occurred(“Bonn Agreement | Working Together For Cleaner Seas,” n.d.).

Nonetheless, the public authorities from the Greater North Sea also collaborate under the BE-AWARE project. This project has quantitatively identifies the risk and magnitude of mineral oils spills in the Bonn Agreement areas and undertakes a qualitative risk assessment for hazardous and noxious substances².

Contrary to collaboration agreements signed at regional level, the relationship at operative level between similar organizations of different countries is limited. For example, the exchange of good practices between port authorities or contracting companies having their activity in ports of the North Sea is minimal. The main reasons for this situation are linked to competition. Equally, the relative distance between intervention teams is too high to share oil spills cleaning equipment, in case of small spills. For this type of events, the procedures and intervention plans are rather developed locally and based on own experience. Nevertheless, local authorities, communities and business organizations evaluate the response notification and response plans as being sufficient.

The following section gives a detailed overview of the oil spill response organization structure in and around the North-West European ports.