The EU promotes a culture of CBRN safety and security within the EU and internationally. Accordingly, the Instrument Contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP) contributes to international efforts to mitigate CBRN risks, whether of natural (e.g. pandemics, volcanic eruptions), accidental (Fukushima) or criminal (trafficking, terrorism) origin, following a consistent ‘all hazards’ approach. The aim is twofold: to prevent CBRN incidents and to build partner countries' capacities for emergency responses to such incidents.
Current security threats have a global, multi dimensional and cross-border nature, therefore CBRN risks cannot be dealt with in isolation. Areas of concern for the EU and its partner countries include disease surveillance, waste management, emergency planning, early warning, civil protection, export controls on dual use goods and the cross-border trafficking of CBRN materials. The shift in the nature of risks and threats calls for a comprehensive approach to CBRN risk mitigation to ensure an adequate response.
In order to achieve the necessary consistency in the approach, particularly due to the highly specialised nature of CBRN-related cooperation, the IcSP assistance in this area will continue to be primarily delivered through the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE), an EU initiative that has been welcomed by the UN Security Council and the G7 Global Partnership. Through the EU CBRN CoE initiative, the EU contributes to CBRN capacity building in partner countries in order to mitigate risks resulting from criminal, industrial or natural accidents. The initiative is being taken forward jointly by the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), and implemented with the technical and scientific support of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) and in partnership with the UN’s Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). Lessons learned from Fukushima, the Ebola crisis in western Africa and the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria have demonstrated the advantages of regional cooperation. Thanks to the EU CBRN CoE initiative, the partner countries receive the necessary support (provided by the JRC) to perform their CBRN needs assessments and development of CBRN national action plans that help to strengthen the capacity to mitigate current and future CBRN risks and threats. The JRC also provides overall assistance to partner countries and regions, including supporting the preparation of terms of reference for regional projects, following up the implementation of such projects and contributing to information exchange and communication between all stakeholders.
The EU CBRN CoE initiative provides a platform for voluntary regional cooperation on all CBRN related hazard issues. Participating countries work bottom up to identify risks, assess gaps and needs, draw up national CBRN action plans and collectively agree on activities or projects to be taken forward at regional level. Regional secretariats, national focal points and CBRN National Teams, representing most of the relevant governmental stakeholders, work towards enhancing this cooperation.
Use of the EU CBRN CoE network will reinforce the synergies between CBRN risk mitigation and related topics such as nuclear safety, security, climate change mitigation and export controls on dual use items. Partner countries participating in the initiative work together and with the EU experts to identify risks, assess gaps and needs and give input on the activities or projects to be taken forward. 55 countries are now partners of the initiative, and several countries are looking to join. The Initiative is organised into 8 Regions, with permanent Regional Secretariats, and brings together state-nominated National focal points and National CBRN teams representing national governmental stakeholders. The integrated CBRN needs assessment exercise, applying an EU-developed user-friendly questionnaire and dedicated IT tools is on-going with the support of the JRC. Based on these results, EU experts together with the Partner Countries' representatives are working on developing specific and tailored CBRN national plans to provide a coherent and comprehensive strategy of capacity building, covering legal, law enforcement and technical issues.
Structured CBRN risk mitigation cooperation is ongoing with relevant international organisations, such as the IAEA, Interpol, the International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC), the Science and Technology Centre (STCU), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Customs Organisation (WCO), the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and other fora such as the UN 1540 Committee, the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI), the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum (ARF), particularly where their geographical reach exceeds that of the EU CBRN CoE . Such cooperation aims to involve these organisations in capacity building to mitigate CBRN risks, enhance complementarity and avoid duplication of efforts.
GOULART DE MEDEIROS Margarida;
ABOUSAHL Said;
MAIER Eddie;
SIMONART Tristan;
DUPRE Bruno;
2018-01-09
IAEA
JRC105433
