The national responsability for dealing with catastrophic events, including grave pollution incidents, on the Belgian territory and in the territorial sea rests legally with the federal Minister of the Interior. Within the Department of the interior, the operational responsability is held by the Civil Protection, which owns limited pollution-combatting equipment, but lacks sea-going support. In case of accidents at sea and activation of the national contingency plan for the North Sea, the Minister of the Interior may delegate his powers to the Province Governor.

The responsability for formulating marine environmental policies at national levels rests with the federal Minister (or Secretary of State) for the Environment. Through the Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM), the Minister coordinates the implantation of the various international agreements. Through his BELMEC section (BELgian Maritime Environmental Control), MUMM organizes the flight planning and provides operators in order to perform these pollution control flights.

Belgium deals with the Bonn Agreement. The Bonn Agreement is an international agreement by North Sea coastal states, together with the European Community to:

- offer mutual assistance and cooperation in combating pollution;

- execute surveillance as an aid to detecting and combating pollution and to prevent violations of anti-pollution regulations.

Members of the Bonn Agreement: Belgium, Denmark, European Community, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Navy operational command at Zeebrugge (COMOPSNAV - Commando Marineoperaties, Ministry of defence) is the National Contact Point for the Bonn Agreement. International messages from the Bonn Agreement Contracting Parties (POLREP) received by COMOPSNAV, are passed on to the Marine Rescue and Co-ordination Centre at Oostende (MRCC, AWZ, administration of Flemish Region). In case of a serious pollution incident at sea, emergency messages are dealt with by the MRCC, which can decide to alert other services following the procedures of the national contingency plan for the North Sea.

COMOPSNAV is also the National Focal Point for in-flight aerial surveillance reports.

Source: Bonn Agreement Counter Pollution Manual 1/9/DEC-98B & Bonn Agreement website.