Final conference of European Critical Infrastructure Protection project 

The Euconcip (European Co-operation Network on Critical Infrastructure Protection) Final Conference was held in Brussels from June 8 – 9, 2016. This final event represented an interactive two-?day networking opportunity for the European Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) community, writes Advisory Panel Member Lina Kolesnikova, who attended the event and contributed to its work as an expert.

_{From left to right: Margherita Volpe, Consuelo Zuccaro, Julia Friedl, Simona Cavallini}

The aim of the conference was to present the final outcome as well as future activities of Euconcip and to exchange up-?to-?date knowledge and experiences as regards emergency management ?of Critical Infrastructure (CI). It is clear that homeland security leaders should rigorously examine ongoing challenges in CIP and strive to bridge the divide between appearance and reality.

Focusing on CI and emergency management, the event was structured in four sessions, each with a specific goal: To analyse the issues from the theoretical/?academic point of view; to describe the challenge faced by first responders; to describe best practices at local, national and international level; and to discuss the upcoming policy issues with domain experts. Additionally, CI operators and stakeholders involved in EU projects had the possibility to contribute to the afternoon session of the first day of the conference, presenting relevant project outcomes and activities related to emergency management and critical infrastructure.

Among the subjects discussed were a new decision-support system for risk analysis, while the Romanian Space Agency presented on the role of space within crisis and emergency situation management. Fire and Rescue Service co-operation with CIP operators in the Czech Republic was another topic presented, as was a case study of risk and critical infrastructure analysis in Lisbon, Portugal.

Euconcip is an EC DG Home Affairs funded project, under the Prevention, Preparedness and Consequence Management of Terrorism and other Security-?related Risks programme (CIPS). The project aims at setting the ground for a European partnership between critical infrastructure’ stakeholders to strengthen public-?private international co-operation, training and cross-?border/?cross-?sector knowledge building and the exchange of public available information on CIP. With an innovative approach, Euconcip tries to foster cross-?sector and European co-operation on CIP topics through an action sharing approach based on practical public-?private co-operation. Indeed, the project will build a network of stakeholders, in the form of a transnational association, which will be able to benefit from a set of joint activities organised by project partners.

The Euconcip initiative sets the basis for growing awareness in CIP and public information sharing between public institutions and private sector stakeholders, improving the exchange and dissemination of experiences and best practices especially thanks to the promotion of training sessions and workshops. CI stakeholders from the EU28 were invited to participate in the Euconcip network.