419 Adolfo García Quintela The evolution of maritime policy in the European... Although Spain already has a National Maritime Security Strategy, in 2015 there is still a long way to go, as the Chief of Defense (CHOD) pointed out: “Maritime Security is an ongoing process which needs the collaboration of all the actors involved”79. Spanish maritime administration is distributed among the different ministerial departments. Nine out of the thirteen ministries are directly related to matters at sea, and seven of them have maritime or naval resources. This dispersion of competences forces greater coordination and cooperation but, at the same time, holds back the development of a National Maritime Security Strategy which, for now, seems more a declaration of intentions. Evidence of this are the different compartmentalized information systems at the different organisms and institutions, as will be explained below. Fernando del Pozo also coincides with this institutional secretiveness when he declares the following referring to public organisms: “It is pointless to indicate that such a system is far from being ideal because each one of them only tries to solve the difficulties that the two signing organisms cause each other, based on limited casuistry, and particularly, ignoring the other actors”80. From this point on, the situation begins to lack coherence. If we keep in mind the almost insular character of Spain, the impulse she gave to the European Union during her Presidency to initiate the creation of the EU Maritime Security Strategy and the creation, a year before the EU, of our National Strategy for Maritime Security, it does not seem logical not to advance in the development of this strategy, and to continue with struggles in the field of competences and the secretiveness between the organisms and institutions of the State with responsibilities related to the sea. The words of Fernando del Pozo coincide in this regard: “Spain cannot lag behind in a field into which the EU, our primary international environment, is attempting to bring order”81. Initiatives related to the exchange of information within the maritime field in Spain. The principal centers and systems of information related to knowledge of the maritime environment are: 79 Extracted from the speech by the CHOD during the first “Breakfast with the Spanish Maritime Cluster” regarding the National Maritime Security Strategy. 80 Maritime Security today… Op. cit. p.30. 81 Maritime Security Today… Op. cit. P. 15 http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
REVISTA_IEEE_10
To see the actual publication please follow the link above