The UNESCO Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (ICG/NEAMTWS) was formed in response to the tragic tsunami on 26 December 2004, in which over 250 000 lives were lost around the Indian Ocean region. After about 10 years, four Tsunami Watch Providers (TWPs) have been established: Turkey, Greece, Italy and France.
The European Commission contributed to the establishment of the system by providing resources to: develop the GDACS system, create a backup of the Sea Level Database, developing the Tsunami Analysis Tool (TAT) and installing a new network of Sea Level Measurements (Inexpensive Device for Sea Level Measurements, IDSL). TAT is currently adopted as Tsunami Decision Support System by Greece and Turkey as TWPs, as well by other national organizations (Romania, Spain, Morocco and Portugal). The IDSL Cadiz, Spain network is providing high quality and real time sea level data to the TWPs.
