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

• Security service providers. In this sector an enormous scaling up of enterprises takes place. Nowadays there are several
fi rms with more than 100.000 employees. At the same time a number of authorities are privatising some of their security
tasks, while private players are also increasing the hiring of surveillance services. An important challenge is to enhance
the competitive power of these fi rms by new supportive technological systems.
In the next paragraph the issues in the three distinguished fi elds of security are further analysed. For each threat, required
capabilities, systemic needs and research needs are dealt with subsequently.
1.2 Required capabilities and research needs
1.2.1 A secure society
1.2.1.1 Threats and challenges
Societal coherence is an essential prerequisite for a secure society. However, a society fulfi lling the ambitions and ideologies
of all individuals and groups of citizens is a utopia. There is always a societal trade off of diff erent desires and views in order
to reach broadly shared, common social, cultural and political values. The dissatisfaction of certain individuals or groups can
become a kernel for societal disturbances. In addition, intended and non-intended infringements of the law and neglecting of
societal values are causing damage. Essential phenomena in this context are:
1. Aggressive violent acts of individuals
Here, threats of a diff erent nature can be mentioned: threats of a mainly social nature (such as acts of desperate people, acts on
environment threatening pollution or vandalism (hooliganism)) and threats of a more political nature such as hostile, discriminating
acts towards minority and vulnerable groups (religious, ethnical, sexual, political groups, females, elderly, children and persons
with specifi c needs). An extreme category consists of violent acts: (suicide-) attacks, taking of hostages and kidnapping.
2. Terroristic acts by organised groups and networks
Terrorists do not restrict themselves to well protected targets, such as embassies, VIP’s, critical infrastructure etc. During
the last decade an increasing number of so called soft targets were attacked. They intend to cause casualties in easily
accessible places where civilians are brought together in confi ned areas on a routine basis (Madrid/London public transport
attacks, Mumbai hotel attacks, or road side bombs in Iraq). Due to the rapid distribution of information and the spreading of
news by mass media, the intended feelings of anxiety and unease in large parts of the population are provoked. Terroristic
activities are directed to deteriorate society by creating panic as an ultimate challenge. An example of a scenario with a real
risk for causing panic is a large-scale CBRN attack on a major city with rapid spread of contamination.
3. Organised criminal activities
The dimensions of organised criminal activities exceed signifi cantly the local scale associated with regular crimes. Europe is
confronted with growing organised crime concerning drug traffi cking, traffi cking in human beings, environmental crimes,
racketeering and counterfeiting. The scale of involved networks is still increasing. Organised criminal activities are directed
to gain materialistic advantages or power.
4. Radicalisation of groups of the population
In certain groups of the population with specifi c characteristics (e.g. ethnic origin, religion, students, poverty) feelings
of alienation and exclusion can arise. If these feelings are ignored there is a risk of provoking undesired processes and
worsening the dissatisfaction in organised groups or networks. A subsequent stage could be the mobilisation potential
actors for defending the denied rights. Ultimately, violent actions remain a possibility. Among others, a manifested problem
is the periodic violent uprisings of young second-, third-, etc. generation immigrants.
1.2.1.2 Required capabilities
Authorities at all levels have to take care of the security in society. In order to cope with the above indicated threats they have
to provide for a number of capabilities:
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