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SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko

Societal security in the European Union new protection policy space: adaptation, development and compatibility

Awarded: NOK 90,579

This proposal builds on the studies in societal safety and security and civil emergency cooperation of the last decade. What has been missing is an approach that takes societal security as a transversal concept inside a multidimensional setting, and thus assesses (a) its adaptation at national level, as a result of the EU influence, (b) its development at the EU level, and (c) its compatibility with existing concepts outside Europe, within international organisations like UN. During a two-day workshop ide as will be exchanged on: 1) The EU comprehensive and integrated approach in societal security and its confrontation with some European states' national approaches: Which factors have shaped the societal security concept at state level? Do we find these fa ctors at EU level? How does the process of adaptation work at national level? 2) The EU attempt to reach vertical consistency and coherence with the member states in societal security. How is this developing? What are the EU challenges? What is the level of coherence/consistency? And the gaps? 3) The EU cooperation at international level with the UN. Is the concept of societal security compatible with the UN's? Is there harmonisation of policies and practices? Is there convergence, overlapping or divergen ce of standards and goals? What is the role of states? To make the assessment of the societal security concept manageable, the focus will be on civil protection, since civil emergency cooperation, taken in its broadest sense, stretches over several policy sectors, actors and emergencies. Many European countries and research institutes have raised these questions, but very few cover and integrate all three levels of societal security. Here an interdisciplinary approach will be used based on two characteris tics: a) a number of countries from southern, central, western and northern Europe; b) a group of relevant researchers in different disciplines (IR and integration studies) from important European researcher centres

Funding scheme:

SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko