IALA Council 4th session – June 2026
The 4th session of the IALA Council, held from 8 to 11 June 2026 at Headquarters in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and online, confirmed continued progress in IALA’s consolidation as an intergovernmental organization. Council noted 50 ratifications, approvals, acceptances or accessions to the Convention, progress on the future Headquarters project, strengthened cooperation with IMO and IHO, and continued growth in membership and technical activity.
Council approved the revised 2026 budget, the Committee Work Programme 2025–2027, major technical outputs across DTEC, ENG and VTS (15 new or revised Recommendations, Guidelines and Model Courses), and liaison notes to IEC TC80, IHO and RTCM. It also endorsed further work on eLoran and other GNSS-independent PNT systems, approved Denmark as host of the 15th IALA Symposium in 2029, and approved the framework for the IALA Award: Empowering Women in Marine Aids to Navigation.
Strategic and technical discussions focused on IALA Centres of Support, GNSS vulnerabilities, AI transcription tools, digitalisation, S-100/S-200, cyber resilience, resilient PNT, VDES, MASS and offshore renewable energy installations. Council tasked the Secretariat with coordinating work on Centres of Support and noted the feasibility study for an IALA Maritime Connectivity Platform instance.
Financially, Council noted the 2025 audited statements and approved the revised 2026 budget of approximately €3.7 million. It also noted membership developments, new accessions to the Convention, World-Wide Academy progress, communications updates, and preparations for the 2027 General Assembly and Conference in Mumbai.
Nine Secretariat action items were recorded, including work on Centres of Support, MASS, liaison notes and WATON Day 2026 communications. The next Council sessions were confirmed for Guangzhou in December 2026, Madrid in June 2027, and Mumbai in November 2027.
The full report is available here: https://www.iala.int/meetings/04/
