Local and regional authorities are increasingly exposed to evolving climate-related, industrial, social and health risks, as in the recent case of the Covid-19 pandemic. Municipalities across Europe mobilised to protect residents, enforce lockdown measures and ensure essential services kept going.

Managing a crisis of this nature is just one aspect of what we call the ‘crisis management cycle’, which includes the following three phases: prevention/risk reduction, management of the incident, and recovery. Each phase requires seamless cooperation between civil protection and security actors.

In the pre-incident and post-incident phases, other stakeholders can also be involved, including victim support associations, representatives of local residents and local businesses. It is key that such cooperation takes place across national borders  since these risks are transnational.

> Reports from the 2024 Security, Democracy and Cities conference
– Crisis Management at the Local Level
– Global crises, local impacts: Threats to social cohesion and how cities can respond

European cooperation projects

• ALARM (France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen : « FOR SECURITY WITHOUT BORDERS » 2017 – 2021)
• APPORT (Help for Preparing Operational Plans for Cross-border Risks) (2010 – 2013)

> Positioning
 
In its 2017 Security, Democracy and Cities Manifesto, Efus calls for local elected officials to be ‘fully recognised as actors in civil security, especially during crisis management’. It recommends adopting ‘in close cooperation with national and international levels of governance’ an ‘integrated approach that makes cities and local authorities more resilient’.
Efus members commit to ‘promoting a partnership culture’ between public stakeholders, emergency services, civil society and private partners such as transport companies, SMEs and businesses, and ‘reaffirming the role of citizens as relevant stakeholders through their association and involvement in crisis prevention and management’.