Article 5 — Tasks relating to environmental sustainability

1. The Agency shall, in a cost-efficient way, support the Member States with additional pollution response operational means, including those to be developed for sustainable alternative fuels, for pollution caused by ships and for marine pollution caused by oil and gas installations. The Agency shall provide such support on request of the Member State concerned under the authority of which the cleaning operations are conducted. Such support shall be without prejudice to the responsibility of coastal States to have appropriate pollution response mechanisms in place and shall respect existing cooperation between Member States in this field. The operational means that the Agency provides to the Member States shall take into account and make provision for the transition of the sector to the use of sustainable alternative sources of power for ships. Where appropriate, requests for mobilisation of anti-pollution actions shall be relayed through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism established by Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (the Union Civil Protection Mechanism). 2. The Agency shall prepare and update a risk assessment for all EU sea basins which shall serve as a basis for the location of the Agency’s oil and chemical pollution response vessels for supporting the Member States in marine environment pollution response activities. 3. The Agency shall assist the Commission and the Member States with the detection of possible pollution and the pursuit of ships making illegal discharges, in accordance with Directive 2005/35/EC. The Agency shall in particular assist with the implementation of Articles 10 to 10d of that Directive by: (a) developing and maintaining the European satellite-based pollution detection service (CleanSeaNet), as part of the SafeSeaNet, and other reporting mechanisms and systems; (b) collecting, analysing and disseminating the relevant information on the implementation of, and enforcement pursuant to, Directive2005/35/EC; (c) providing capacity building to the competent national authorities and facilitating the exchange of best practices between them; (d) developing and maintaining the online external reporting channel for receiving and handling information on potential illegal discharges communicated by the crew, and relaying such information to the Member State or Member States concerned, while ensuring the necessary protection of persons who report potential infringements and of their personal data. 4. The Agency shall cooperate with other Union agencies, such as European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA), established by Regulation (EU) 2019/473, in line with the working arrangement referred to in Article 12(2) of this Regulation. 5. The Agency shall provide the CleanSeaNet service and any other tools to assist the Commission and the Member States, upon the request of the Commission or a Member State, to monitor the extent and environmental impact of marine oil pollution caused by oil and gas installations. 6. The Agency shall assist the Commission and the Member States in the implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/883, including the development, maintenance and update of the inspection database provided for in Article 14 of that Directive. 7. The Agency shall assist the Commission and the Member States in the implementation of Directive 2008/56/EC, by contributing to the objective of achieving or maintaining good environmental status of marine waters as defined in that Directive with shipping-related elements of Directive 2008/56/EC and in making use of existing tools such as the Integrated Maritime Services provided by the Agency. 8. The Agency shall assist the Commission and the Member States, upon the request of the Commission or a Member State, including with operational tools and services, in the implementation of the shipping-related elements of Directive (EU) 2016/802. In that respect, the Agency shall also maintain the relevant inspection database to assist Member States in assessing the risk of ships’ non-compliance with that Directive. 9. The Agency shall assist the Commission and the Member States in the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 1257/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council through the collection and analysis of data on compliance with that Regulation. 10. After prior approval by the Management Board, the Agency may support the Commission and the Member States in emerging areas related to environmental sustainability, as appropriate and without prejudice to the competences of Member States in those areas. 11. Every three years, the Agency shall present to the Commission a report on the progress made in reducing the environmental impact of maritime transport at the Union level.