Civil security policies, research priorities and budgets are expanding quickly across the 27 EU nations, with direct operational and economic implications for public and private stakeholders at all levels of society. Hundreds of million of euros each year are funding new research projects and procurement and the EU budget for civil security alone is growing over 13% in 2010.     But the EU’s civil security policy and research agendas are complex. Whether your organisation currently has or plans to develop technologies for civil security applications, you NEED to be aware of the EU’s:

Identifying opportunities in this policy landscape requires time and resources.   Tracking and making sense of the EU’s civil security agenda for all the stakeholders - ahead of the opportunities - is the raison d’etre of SecEUR (see ‘our products & services’).

Contact us and put our experience and insider knowledge to work for you.  

FLASH ALERT . . .

Here are some security-related policy developments and events we think readers should be aware of:

Faster security R&D? The Commission's Directorate-General for Enterprise & Industry (DG-ENTR) is mulling how to better align the EU's security research objectives with policy and market requirements, and achieve faster research results. One key change needed is how to fast-track security technology in the face of emerging threats. "You can't use the EU's traditional FP [multi-year Framework Research programme rules] approach for that: it's too slow," says an industry source who works closely with DG-ENTR. "They've got to come up with something else." DG-ENTR will launch studies in the second half of 2010 on ways to do this, said the source. Watch for new calls-for-proposals in our Tenders Watch section in the coming months.

Danish security insurance. The EU says Denmark can go ahead with plans to introduce state-backed liability insurance against terrorism. Insurers who provide insurance in Denmark against attacks using chemical, biological, nuclear or radioactive substances will be liable for non-life damages up to a certain pre-determined threshold. The scheme will be open to all Danish and foreign non-life insurance companies. See: EU press release

Maritime data. The European Commission's Directorate-General for maritime affairs is producing a roadmap for the maritime common information sharing environment, which will be released in about a month for comment from member states and other parts of the European Commission involved in maritime questions. Though not public, the document outlines the basic thinking on how the pan-European system could work, an EU source tells SECURITY EUROPE, adding that it will change the nature of future EU-level information sharing in the maritime sector.

Spain's security priorities. Spain will use its helm at the EU presidency until July to develop stronger EU security, foreign and defence policies - and to exploit provisions of the new Lisbon Treaty that call on EU member states to help each other if victimised by a terrorist attack or natural disaster. "We intend to work toward a strong solidarity clause in Europe," López Garrido, secretary of state for the EU at Spain's Foreign Affairs Ministry, said in December.

Next justice/home affairs agenda. The EU's new five-year Stockholm Programme of justice and home affairs objectives for 2010-2014 was adopted by the 27 in December. The 80-page document supplants the Hague Agenda, and will be legally adopted soon, after its translation into each of the EU's official languages.

HEADLINES . . .

     BRUSSELS - How big is Europe's security market? No one really knows, though the European Commission has now attempted to put a number on it. In a new report issued by the Commission's Directorate-General for enterprise and industry policy (DG-ENTR), the value of Europe's security market for the year To read more, subscribe >>

     BRUSSELS - The European Commission's first and massive new study assessing the size and composition of the EU's security market places the latter's value as high as €36 billion. (See related article on "Size of Security Market"). As might be expected from a 285-page "Study on the Competitiveness of the EU security industry", it is chock full of statistics, definitions, graphics and creative illustrations - all designed to help steer the reader through a sector or, more accurately, a collection of sub-sectors that remains largely unstructured.
     Yet the real question is: what does the To read more, subscribe >>

     BRUSSELS - The EU's new Lisbon Treaty will promote progress in maritime situational awareness (MSA) but it is not enough, an EU official tells SECURITY EUROPE. The biggest obstacle to information sharing is legal, and legislation is needed to allow real information sharing between all the different organisations and actors across Europe involved in the sector: border surveillance, customs & immigration, fisheries control, maritime safety, marine pollution response, security of ships and ports, police and crime prevention.
     A new preliminary report on the information sharing environment will be To read more, subscribe >>

     BRUSSELS - EOS, the European Organisation for Security based here, hopes to motivate business and policymakers to act on its new security white papers and their recommendations. Released in December, the papers offer wide-ranging analysis across eight different security sub-sectors: border management, integrated maritime policy, civil protection, civil aviation security, energy infrastructure security, surface transport security, supply chain security and ICT/network security.
     "The aim of the white papers is to get competitors around the table to To read more, subscribe >>

     BRUSSELS - Despite serious concerns at EU level - particularly from European Commission officials responsible for customs policy - Washington's requirement for 100-percent scanning of US-bound containers will take effect in 2012. The potential technical barrier to integrated supply chain security and international trade is serious, according to EU officials.
     Recent Commission estimates indicate that the investment needed for 100-percent scanning (including expenditures for additional terminal operation equipment) would amount to at least To read more, subscribe >>

     BRUSSELS - The European Commission's DG Environment (DG-ENV) seeks a wide range of project proposals in the area of civil protection in 2010 but will give special attention to ideas that focus on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) emergency situations and to exercises that test the To read more, subscribe >>

     In information security, at least one role seemed to be clear: hackers are the bad guys. But the recent case of successful hacking at the UK based University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) just before the start of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December should make us think.
     More than 1000 private e-mails of climate researchers were published on the internet after a server hack at CRU, seemingly showing that scientific results might be less To read more, subscribe >>

CONTRACT NOTICES

1. Call for proposals: Community Actions under the External Borders Fund (2007-2013)To read more, subscribe >>

Here are some upcoming events related to European civil security we think readers should be aware of:To read more, subscribe >>