Belgian Coast Guard

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Belgian Coast Guard" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (May 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Kustwacht (Belgien)]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Kustwacht (Belgien)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Belgian Coast Guard is made up of an operational branch and an administrative branch. There are three administrative bodies working in close cooperation: the policy-making body, the consultation body and the Coast Guard secretariat.

The policy-making body coordinates the cooperation between the different parties. It also issues advice for the ministers and both the federal and regional government.

It consists of the heads of division or general directors of all coast guard partners. The chairmanship is alternated between a regional official Jacques D’Havé (head of the agency for Maritime and Coastal Services) and a federal official Alain Lefèvre (general director a.i. of the government’s emergency response centre).

The consultation body assembles information and prepares cases for the policy-making body. The consultation body can also set up working groups. It is chaired by the governor of West-Flanders province. Furthermore, a deputy of each of the coast guard partners takes part in the meetings. These deputies can be engineers, scientists, legal or nautical experts and operational personnel. They have the necessary practical knowledge to prepare cases for the policy-making body.

The secretariat coordinates all activities, both administrative and operational, from organizing meetings to drawing up emergency response plans together with the coast guard partners. The secretariat also assists with outlining policy and is the designated point of contact for coast guard – related organisations abroad.

In addition, the public can consult the secretariat for all queries regarding the North Sea. The motto is: one question, one solution. The secretariat contacts the coast guard partner concerned for the right answer or a suitable solution. The building of the Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre (MRCC) also houses the secretariat.

• Official website