International Projects

Analysis of Civil Security Systems in Europe

  • The ANVIL (FP7) project mapped the cultural, legal and operational diversity of 22 national systems for crisis management in Europe and examined the framework for European cooperation in crisis and emergency management. ANVIL adopted a broad perspective, which helped us to reject the simplified assumption about the ‘best practices’ for crisis management in Europe, both national and supranational. Our analysis showed that administrative responsibilities, legal frameworks and operational practices continue to differ markedly, since national systems are backed up by national cultural contexts and historical experiences. The research conducted on the project found no significant differences in effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. Certain areas could be improved, but there is no best and universal crisis management model in Europe today.
  • We found that arrangements for cross-border assistance in and outside the EU are generally well-developed. The EU might not be a highly visible actor in cross-border crisis management, but EU coordination has citizens’ broad support (although some larger member states do not support further integration).
  • What does this mean for European cooperation in tackling cross-border crises and disasters? First and foremost, we believe that societal and civil security, rooted in profound local knowledge and public support, cannot be imposed from above. Our findings suggest that the EU has a specific role as a facilitator and promoter or cross-border cooperation. While the standardization of national structures and processes does not seem necessary, or even helpful, the EU’s role could be to develop a shared framework used to identify lessons learned and ‘best practices’ in a bottom-up manner.

DAnube river region Resillience Exchange network — DAREnet

An exchange network aimed at strengthening resilience in the Danube region – Danube River Region Resilience Exchange Network – DAREnet is a Horizon 2020 project financed by the European Commission.

The central aims of the DAREnet project are:

Flood management innovations (practitioner teams for practitioner teams)

DAREnet is a network of flood management practitioner teams in the Danube River region, supported by a dynamic multidisciplinary community of collaborators from policy, industry, research and many others.

The DAREnet project will enable practitioner teams in the Danube region:

  • to connect and exchange ideas with local collaborators in Europe in a team environment,
  • to independently identify and analyze the main drawbacks of the current state of affairs,
  • to develop joint new strategies to improve flood protection in the future.

A community of practitioner teams in the Danube region

DAREnet is building a multi-disciplinary community of practitioner teams to work in civil protection organizations. This group of organizations is supported by a large number of collaborators from policy, industry and research. Together, they are building an interdisciplinary system to foster synergies, innovation and its uptake in the entire Danube region.

Building a network of national practitioner teams

DAREnet is organized as a network of national practitioner teams, led by DAREnet National Contacts (DNK), which is responsible for including national communities into the regional DAREnet community.

Innovation strategies for improving regional flood management

DAREnet provides annual guidelines emphasizing the most significant innovative possibilities for tackling the main environmental challenges in the region. DAREnet is laying the foundations for specific guidelines and initiatives, which are proactively being presented to the relevant national and European bodies to support future innovation strategies in the region:

  • developing well-structured dialogue among practitioner teams in order to strengthen flood management through interdisciplinary cooperation,
  • improving innovation capacity and introducing new knowledge by building innovation communities at the international and interdisciplinary level,
  • facilitating the introduction of specific initiatives for innovation and future cooperation and preparing ground for policy innovation.