News Releases
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Gűnter
Verheugen |
Franco Frattini |
No.71/05
August 2, 2005
FIGHT
AGAINST TERRORISM: €15 MILLION FOR NEW SECURITY RESEARCH
Terrorist
attacks using explosives or chemical, biological, radiological
and nuclear substances on mainline or metropolitan railway
systems pose a clear and present danger to EU citizens.
This is why the European Commission has decided to fund
a research project to design and demonstrate an anti-terrorist
security system architecture to detect these terrorist
threats better and hence protect railway passengers better.
The project will combine information from sensors, remote
control or autonomous cameras, ground penetrating radars
and line scanners. This is one of thirteen projects selected
under the "Preparatory Action for Security Research"
to improve the security of EU citizens and strengthen
the European industrial base. The eight technology projects
and five supporting activities selected will receive EU
funding of €15 million. Given the increasing importance
of security research, the Commission proposed to increase
the yearly budget substantially from €15 million to roughly
€250 million a year from 2007.
Vice-President Günter
Verheugen said: “The recent events in London show
how vulnerable public transport systems are to terrorist
attacks. The Commission is determined to do its part to
better protect our citizens and fund EU wide targeted
research efforts.”
Vice-President Franco
Frattini, responsible for the coordination of the
fight against terrorism, said: “The findings of the
research projects will constitute yet another small but
important step in strengthening the EU’s capacity to prevent
and counter terrorism.”
Other selected projects will look at improving surveillance
of European harbours and coastlines and at integrated
protection systems of the complete air transportation
system, including aircraft, ground infrastructure and
information networks against terrorist attacks, as well
as attacks by Man Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS).
Another project aims to detect earlier suspicious activities
by robustly securing computers linked to networks. It
addresses the interoperability of intelligence services
in order to enable information analysis and consolidation
from different sources.
The projects aim to define both the required technological
solutions and the supporting operational concepts. Commission
services are now preparing the third and last call for
proposals of the Preparatory Action for Security Research,
planned for publication in early February 2006.
To prepare for the new financial period starting in 2007,
in April 2005, a European Security Research Advisory Board
(ESRAB), composed of private and public security stakeholders,
was created and is in the process of advising the Commission
on the content and the implementation of security research
within the 7th RTD Framework Programme (2007-2013).
For the full list of 13 projects, see MEMO/05/277.
For more information on security research see MEMO/05/116
and
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/security/index_en.htm.
For more information on the Commission’s activities in
the fight against terrorism see MEMO/05/272.
Further Contact Information
Press and Media Relations
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.eurunion.org/PressRoom
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
