Rationale

Security in Europe is a precondition of prosperity and freedom. The EU Security Strategy: ‘A Secure Europe in a Better World’, adopted by the European Council, addresses the need for a comprehensive security strategy encompassing both civil and defence-related security measures. Security related research is an important building block for realising a high level of security within the area of freedom, security and justice. It will also contribute to developing technologies and capabilities in support of other Community policies in areas such as transport, civil protection, energy, environment and health. Security research needs specific implementation rules to take into account its special nature. Existing security related research activities in Europe suffer from the fragmentation of efforts, the lack of critical mass of scale and scope and the lack of connections and interoperability. Europe needs to improve the coherence of its efforts by developing efficient institutional arrangements and by instigating cooperation and coordination among the various national and international actors in order to avoid duplication and to explore synergies wherever possible. Security research at Community level will maintain an exclusively civil orientation and focus on activities of clear added value to the national level. As a consequence, civil security research within the Seventh Framework Programme will reinforce the competitiveness of the European security industry. Recognising that there are areas of ‘dual-use’ technology, close coordination with the activities of European Defence Agency will be needed in order to ensure complementarity. Security research will emphasise European capabilities regarding surveillance, distribution of information and knowledge of threats and incidents as well as systems for better assessments and situation control through better use of common ICT-systems in the fields of different operations. The special requirements concerning confidentiality in this area will be enforced but the transparency of research findings will not be unnecessarily restricted. In addition, areas in which research findings may be made public will be identified. The non defence activities set out below will complement and integrate the technology- and systems-oriented research relevant to civil security which is carried out in other themes. They will be mission-oriented, developing the technologies and capabilities as required by the specific security missions. They are by design flexible so as to accommodate as yet unknown future security threats and related policy needs that may arise, stimulating cross-fertilisation and the take-up of existing technologies for the civil security sector, European security research will also encourage the development of multi-purpose technologies in order to maximise the scope for their application.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.