Paris, France, January 2019 – Efus is a partner in PACTESUR, a new European project led by the city of Nice (FR) and started in January, which will seek to give European local authorities knowledge and tools to better protect their public spaces against the threats, particularly terrorist threats.
The project gathers, apart from Nice and Efus, the cities of Liege (BE) and Turin (IT) as well as the National Association of Italian Communes (Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani, ANCI).
> A global approach on the protection of public spaces
It will seek to reflect on standards, legal frameworks and local governance for the drafting of common standard guidelines, response protocols and soft laws; develop specialised training programmes for local security operators; raise awareness among citizens and politicians on their role in prevention and as security actors; identify the most adapted local investments for securing open and touristic public spaces by sharing field experience; and set up local pilot sites equipped to prevent and promptly react to terrorist threats while preserving the urban environment.
Efus will be in charge of leading a working group of 10 cities that have specific issues and knowledge regarding the protection of urban public spaces, the associate expert committee of more than 30 members who will take part in all the major project activities, as well as the working groups on European standards and transnational cooperation set up with the partners from the 10 associated cities and the expert advisory committee. Furthermore, it will organise three local governance workshops in each of the three partner cities that will be open to local civil society members.
> Several years of cooperation between Nice and Efus on this issue
This new project follows a series of initiatives by the city of Nice, with the support of Efus, regarding the prevention of and protection against terrorist threats that the French city put forward following the terrorist attack of 14 July 2016 when a lorry ploughed into a crowd and killed 86 people.
A member of Efus, this city promoted the Declaration of Nice, which was co-written by the Euromed network and Efus and was adopted in September 2017 by both networks as well as by 60 mayors from 18 countries. This text was adopted as part of the conference of “Mayors of large cities in Europe and the Mediterranean confronted to the challenge of terrorism” organised that same month in Nice by Euromed with the support of Efus, the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. The signatories recall the importance of preventing radicalisation leading to violent extremism and pledge to cooperate among local authorities as well as with national and European institutions.
>>> More information on the PACTESUR project
