REA Security Unit shares project results in critical infrastructure resilience

Five REA projects in the area of critical infrastructure resilience and city resilience showcased their work at a conference on 10 April.

The event brought together European policymakers, researchers and critical infrastructure practitioners. It was organised jointly by the projects Smart Mature Resilience, Resolute, RESILENS and DARWIN, all managed by REA Unit "Safeguarding Secure Society", as well as project IMPROVER managed by DG HOME Unit "Innovation and Industry for Security".

All five projects have contributed to future European Resilience Management Guidelines by developing various tools addressing both sudden shocks, such as man-made threats, and long-term stresses, such as climate-change related hazards. In addition, standardisation activities have also been successful, with CEN (European Committee for Standardization) workshop agreements already established, paving the way for three new standards.

The following main challenges in enhancing resilience in cities and in critical infrastructures were debated during the panel discussions:

• convincing organisations that resilience management can complement and add value to the existing risk assessment practices;
• lack of cross-organisational and cross-sectoral approaches for resilience management;
• lack of data from critical infrastructure operators to enable efficient first response by local authorities during emergencies. 

Some of the future actions planned in the area include project outcomes integration and validation to provide a comprehensive resilience management modelling approach applicable to the various security domains and organisational needs across Europe. The participants concluded that, on a policy level, a balance between more regulation and more voluntary incentives should be sought.

The outcomes of the conference are being compiled in a white paper that explores the way forward towards European Resilience Management Guidelines and will be published shortly.