Second Shared Awareness and De-confliction (SHADE) meeting for the Mediterranean Sea
This afternoon, after two intense days of meetings and fruitful discussions in the Command in Chief of the Italian Fleet’s Headquarters (Rome, Italy), the Second Shared Awareness and De-confliction (SHADE) meeting for the Mediterranean Sea chaired by the Italian Navy completed its works.
“The SHADE MED is an entirely voluntary network, which shall continue for as long as nations and organisations consider it useful. I am happy to see that the network keeps growing. Operation SOPHIA remains strongly committed to the SHADE MED forum, and this is why we will continue to fulfill the role of its permanent secretariat, thus bringing the needed continuity” the EUNAVFOR MED Operation Commander, Rear Admiral Enrico Credendino 
, stated opening the meeting on the 12 May.
The seminar was attended by 145 representatives coming from 74 different organizations, ranging from Governments and Armed Forces of the coastal states of the Mediterranean, International Institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union and Non-Governmental entities involved in rescue operations at sea.
All of them are involved in responding to the challenges of migration crises across the Mediterranean Sea, whether by fulfilling international obligations in rescuing people in distress or taking action to disrupt the smugglers’ business model to prevent further loss of life at sea
Novelty of this second edition are the eight associated SHADE MED working groups, that are dealing with thematic issues that have been identified as particularly important in addressing the migration related challenges facing the Mediterranean today.
“Valuable work is being done on issues such as identifying legal solutions to defining human smuggling in international law, and finding technical solutions such as establishing a Maritime Security Capacity, that will allow real time info sharing between maritime actors using a CIS system called SMART, which has similar functionalities to the MERCURY used in the Horn of Africa” explained Rear Admiral Credendino.
Launched last 22 June 2015 with the main objective of undertaking systematic efforts to identify, capture and dispose of vessels used by migrant smugglers or traffickers, EUNAVFOR MED operation Sophia has set a wide net of cooperation with main actors currently dealing with migration and with various European Agencies.