The city of Nice hosts the first European Week of Security 

On October 14, the city of Nice in France welcomed the First European Week of Security. The whole week saw a number of activities for European law enforcement agencies from the associated cities, representatives of European municipalities, European Forum for Urban Security (EFUS) representatives and experts from the Project Allied Cities against TErrorism in Securing Urban aReas (Pactesur) project. CRJ Advisory Panel Member and ICPEM Fellow Lina Kolesnikova took part as an expert of the Pactesur project and presented on lessons learned from recent soft target attacks.



All aspects of a crisis - events before, during and after - were addressed in the training exercises undertaken by law enforcement professionals from cities across Europe. All photos: Lina Kolesnikova

On the first day, the official launch of the event was supported by welcoming speeches by the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, Commissioner for the Security Union, Julian King, Europol’s Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle, and General Secretary of EFUS, Elizabeth Johnston. 

Participants at Security Week expressed a very keen interest in the EU projects dedicated to security, which were discussed at the round table presentations. These included:

• Secur’cities – an EU-funded project on improving protection against terrorist threats and other critical incidents in public areas, with city-partners Lyon and Barcelona;
• PRoTECT – a project aimed at strengthening the capabilities of local authorities in public protection;
• Urban Agenda for the EU – an integrated and co-ordinated approach to deal with the urban dimension of EU and national policies and legislation;
• Cutting Crime Impact (CCI) project – which enables a preventive, evidence-based and sustainable approach to tackling high-impact petty crime; and
• Safer Space for Safer Cities (SafeCi) – a best practice project involving exchanging experience between law enforcement agencies from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. The aim is to examine and analyse existing concepts, strategies and technical tools to improve the protection of public space.

During the first three days, participants from law enforcement agencies took part in special training with desk-top exercises and real crisis events simulations. At the end of the training, participants were awarded certificates.

Experts from Pactesur presented their findings on challenges, opportunities and priorities at pre-, ongoing and post-crisis situations to all participants.

The next European Week for Security is scheduled for October 2020, and it will take place in the city of Liège, Belgium.