The 60th General Assembly of the European Maritime Pilots’ Association (EMPA)), held on 14 and 15 April in Ghent under the slogan ‘Navigating the Past, Steering the Future’, brought together port pilots and representatives of the maritime sector from all over Europe in one of the most important meetings on the international maritime scene.
Airam Rodríguez, CEO of Híades Business Patterns, participated in the Training & Technical session sharing the stage with Sergio Cabrera Bona, who presented the EGNOS project, and Jan-Niklaas Brons, which addressed the legal impact and responsibility of European practitioners, in a session chaired by José Antonio Pérez, Vice president of EMPA.
During his speech, Airam presented the new updates of EMPAsafe, the tool developed under the brand Amura for EMPA, which continues to evolve as a key solution to improve communication and notification of deficiencies in real time, contributing directly to the safety of practitioners in their daily operations. Today EMPAsafe registers activity in 26 countries, with users in Europe and Canada. Among the novelties presented in Ghent are the possibility of selecting multiple base ports, the automatic validation of the IMO number, a new option to record whether a deficiency has been notified to the competent authority, and an improved notification logic that distinguishes if an incident was detected on the arrival or departure of the ship, automatically directing the notices to the most relevant organization.
But the participation in Ghent went further. Airam also conveyed to the attendees one of the great milestones of Spanish port digitalization: the Spanish Maritime Data Space (EDME), A strategic digital infrastructure that allows for the secure, interoperable and governed exchange of data between port authorities and actors in the maritime ecosystem. A federated and sovereign space where each participant maintains control of its information, sharing it under a common framework of trust and governance, and promoting greater operational efficiency, improved decision-making, increased maritime security and logistics optimization in real time.
This international recognition reinforces EDME’s position as a benchmark in Europe, consolidating Spain as a leader in the digital transformation of the maritime-port sector. The project already has been validated in real environments and continues to grow with the incorporation of new port nodes, demonstrating that interoperability is already a reality in our port system.
From Ghent, with a clear vision: data is the new engine of the maritime ecosystem.
We thank Miguel Vieira de Castro and EMPA for the opportunity to participate in such a well-organized event, and we take away valuable conversations and new opportunities for collaboration to continue advancing maritime safety through innovation.
The EDME project has been funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.