The General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration (SGMAI) approved a €2,3 million project to strengthen the operational capacity of the Guarda Nacional Republicana in the area of coastal surveillance and control.
75% of the costs – 1,7 million euros – of the project approved by SGMAI, as Responsible Authority of the Internal Security Fund, will be financed by European funds.
Strengthening the control of maritime navigation and increasing the levels of internal security at national and European Union level is one of the main objectives to be achieved with the new Automatic Identification System (AIS) for vessels and multiple surveillance cameras.
The new surveillance cameras will expand the potential of the Integrated Surveillance, Command and Control System (SIVICC), managed and operated by the GNR Coastal Control Unit (UCC).
The reinforcement of AIS signal coding will be another objective to be achieved.
As the Minister of Internal Administration Eduardo Cabrita has already revealed, the dimension of the GNR Coast Guard involves the completion – in progress – of the GNR radar network in Madeira and its subsequent expansion to the Azores.
The UCC is the specialized unit responsible for fulfilling the GNR's mission along the entire coast and territorial sea, with specific powers of surveillance, patrolling and interception on land or sea throughout the coast and territorial sea.
Its importance is increasingly greater due to its role in controlling the EU's largest external maritime border, in fishing security, in criminal investigations against drug and human trafficking and in monitoring migratory flows.
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