I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

1. Working Group: Security of the Citizens
1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 Scope
The security of Europe’s citizens is deliberately threatened by a variety
of violent and destructive acts of man, most notably terrorism and
organized crime. The targets of these threats vary widely: threats can be
aimed at the security of our borders, our infrastructures, our population,
or government. They can materialize through a variety of means, such
as fi nancial manipulations, CBRNE-weapons, corruption, and so on.
ESRIF deals with these threats, how to prevent them from happening,
how to be prepared for them and how to deal with their destructive
eff ects. Within this context, Working Group 1 considered those threats
where citizens are threatened by acts of man aimed at wide targets,
rather than individuals.
1.1.2 Fit to context of ESRIF
Nowadays the security of citizens is primarily pursued by the elimination of malignant elements and by the effi cient and eff ective
response to manifesting threats. ESRIF Working Group 1 chose a broader approach with a specifi c attention to social coherence
of the society. This includes, for example, the desire for an early response to detection of tensions between population groups
with signifi cant diff erences in welfare, ethnicity or religion. In this perspective, trust between citizens and societal structures is a
key factor for prevention of feelings of uneasiness and seeds of unrest. A resilient society, in event of security incidents, requires
appropriate behaviour from well prepared citizens and the effi cient, fl exible and proportional reaction of security organisations.
Sharing of situation awareness and coordination of preventive and responsive actions are, in this context, key elements.
Innovation of systems on a multinational scale is essential for reaching higher security levels for citizens in Europe. Modelling of
social interactions, information-exchange systems, mobility of people and goods and of organisations responsible for executing
security tasks is necessary to lay the foundation of broadly acceptable policy options and new technical provisions. Requirements
from the perspective of laws, guidelines, privacy, business and interoperability have to be accommodated. The implementation
of new systems often requires modifying the responsibilities of the involved stakeholders. This results in the need for adequate
education and training for security workers, but also for example service providers and not least for citizens.
1.1.3 Developing a strategy
From the start of ESRIF, the following nine topics were selected for a more in depth study by Working Group 1:
1. Terrorism and organised crime
2. Protection of soft targets
3. Urban security
4. Civil protection
5. Cybercrime, on-line investigations
6. Public-private trusted information exchange models
7. Financial threats
8. Explosives
9. Forensics
49