National emergency plan for the defense against pollution of hydrocarbons or other harmful substances caused by marine accidents.

This National Emergency Plan regulates the operational methods of intervention both of the Civil Protection Department and the central and local offices of the National Service of Civil Protection.
It represents the third level of the national operational plan which includes: a - at the first level, the local emergency operational plans, prepared by each Head of Maritime Department and the various plans prepared by the provinces, with regard to the coastal pollution; b. - on the second level, the emergency response plan for the defense of the sea and coastal areas from pollution caused by accidents, prepared by the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of the Territory and the Sea.
The main goals of this plan are: - to set the rules to exercise the direction of the operations aimed at reducing the damage and remediate the contaminated area; - to regulate the practical forms of intervention that central and peripheral State Authorities must put in place in order to remediate and mitigate the damage caused to people and the environment by marine pollution by hydrocarbons or other harmful substances.
The plan applies to all possible marine or coastal pollution, whatever the sources and situations that originated them, when the national emergency is declared.
The text further identifies the central and local bodies responsible for the Plan's implementation; it also describes in details, both for the case of pollution from hydrocarbons or from other hazardous substances, which are the phases of the emergency management and the tasks assigned to the involved entities also setting up a classification of different types of pollution, depending on the severity of the casualty.
The Plan then describes the means that can be used to combat marine and coastal pollution; the subsequent phase of disposal or recovery of materials recovered from the sea and coasts, including the reuse of the recovered hydrocarbon, as well as their reconditioning or the destruction of residues or their storage in safe conditions; the management of the media relations.