CBSS Secure Workshop in Krakow
The one and a half day workshop was organized in the frame of reference for the project is the EUSBSR Policy Area (PA) Secure, coordinated by Sweden (Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency MSB) and the CBSS Secretariat. This framework enables a comprehensive and coherent approach to reduce transboundary vulnerabilities, enhance regional resilience and to build up common capacities and capabilities for societal security in the Baltic Sea Region.
The workshop’s objective was to contribute to identifying the most promising areas and forms of enhanced cooperation EUSBR Policy Area Secure. The workshop focused on seven cooperation areas, where enhanced cooperation was seen possible and potentially valuable. Referring to the transboundary context and societal security focus of the EUSBSR PA Secure, these include: 1) a common regional societal security culture; 2) cross-border authority cooperation; 3) cross- and multi-sectorial cooperation; 4) local level community and civil society -based cooperation; 5) research networks and their usage ; 6) education, training and exercises; 7) project generation and the use of project results.
The RAIN Project was introduced as a model for cross sectoral and multidiciplinary European cooperation funded by the EC. The project provides research deliverables to support the regional Baltic Sea cooperation as well (The Finnish case study highlighting the Flooding 2005 at the Gulf of Finland and the storms 2010 and 2011 in Finland). This verbal introduction of the project was made by Dr Timo Hellenberg while moderating the roundtable on common EUSBSR education, training for civil protection.
The participants considered some further possibilities to enhance the regional cooperation such as more systemic cross-border authority cooperation; project based cross- and multi-sectorial cooperation; and more permanent research networks and their utilization. The 2 day meeting was successful in pinpointing those areas where the CBSS can facilitate and generate new areas of civil security cooperation and also to draw attention to research and role of Universities and research endowments.