The accidents that polluted the French, Spanish, Moroccan and Portuguese coasts, including the Aragon’s shipwreck in Madeira in 1990, demonstrated the need for a regional agreement to combat marine pollution sea, covering the waters of the Northeast Atlantic.

Thus in 1990 the Portuguese government made a proposal to the European Commission that it signed an agreement for the protection of the Northeast Atlantic’s coasts and waters.

On 17 October, 1990, Portugal, France, Morocco, Spain and the European Community have signed the Lisbon Agreement.On 20 May, 2008, an Additional Protocol was signed that modified the southern limit.

The Lisbon Agreement is essentially a mechanism to ensure cooperation between the Contracting Parties in the case of giving a pollution incident. The Agreement establish the obligation to the Contracting Parties to create their own intervention agencies and to set their own national plans of action

The Lisbon Agreement is not yet in force because not all parties have deposited their instruments of ratification.