THE EUROPEAN – SECURITY AND DEFENCE UNION
CONFERENCE REPORT EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative
7th International Meeting of National Focal Points
photo: Hartmut Bühl
by Nannette Cazaubon, Paris
H
ow should we fight jointly against Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) risks and threats around the world? These challenges go beyond national borders and cannot be tackled alone, as recent CBRN attacks and events in Europe, its neighbouring countries and the use of chemical weapons in Syria showed. This is also true for the re-emergence of epidemic diseases like Ebola in Africa, or the increasingly devastating effects of natural disasters and climate change. In answer to this urgent problem, the European Union launched in 2010 an initiative called “European Union CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence” (EU CBRN CoE). Within this initiative, there are currently 61 partner countries grouped around 8 Regional Secretariats1, collaborating with the aim of fostering national, regional and interregional cooperation around the world to better prevent CBRN incidents or disasters.
The initiative is well on track Led by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), the EU CBRN COE initiative is now well on track, as was highlighted during the “7th International meeting of National Focal Points” that took place from 12th to 14th June in La Hulpe, near Brussels. This international three-day meeting gathered about 180 participants from countries involved in the EU CBRN CoE Initiative, who all agreed that the initiative has reached a turning point. Organised by DG DEVCO and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), with the support of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the meeting in La Hulpe was the opportunity for fruitful discussion among the participants from Africa, Asia, the Middle-East, South East and Eastern Europe, as well as observers from Kazakhstan, the USA, and regional and international organisations. Plenary
Regional Roundtable meetings were held on the second day of the conference
Presentation of a mobile biosafety laboratory photo: Devco
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photo: Devco