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Part 1: Public spaces at the heart of the city
Public spaces have changed throughout history. The traditional role of the central square as a gathering place for trade, political and religious expression has evolved into a multitude of other uses and new interac tions. The ways in which citizens access, engage and relate to public spaces have changed, and urban public spaces have become vital areas of urban life: places for communication, gatherings, political demon strations, artistic and cultural performances and all sorts of entertain ment. They represent places where people come together, interact and encounter differences .
The political discourse about public spaces has changed over time as politicians now generally consider them as “public goods” and recog nise the leading role played by local authorities in managing them. Local and regional governments are committed to investing in public spaces as a means to strengthen social cohesion, improve the quality of life, and enhance the image and attractivity of cities. Indeed, numerous studies have shown that well maintained, healthy and safe public spaces improve security and people’s feelings of insecurity.
What is a public space?
As defined by UN-Habitat, “public spaces are all places publicly owned or of public use, accessible and enjoyable by all for free and without a profit motive”.2 They are a key element of individual and social well-being, the places of a community’s collective life, ex pressions of the common natural and cultural richness in all its diversity and a foundation of cities’, and hence citizens’ identity, as expressed by the European Landscape Convention.3
Public spaces can be defined as any open place that is accessible to all without direct cost, such as streets, roads, public squares, parks, shopping centres and beaches, as well as closed places accessible to citizens, such as government and official buildings.
1- Barker, A. (2017). Mediated Conviviality and the Urban Social Order: Reframing the Regulation of Urban Public Space, British Journal of Criminology, 57(4), 848-866.
2- UN-Habitat (2015). Global Public Space Toolkit: From Global Principles to Local Policies and Practice.
3- The first international treaty devoted exclusively to all dimensions of the landscape, the Council of Europe Landscape Convention promotes the protection, management and planning of the landscapes and organises international co-operation on landscape issues.
1.1. The complex challenge of protecting public spaces
Because they are highly frequented and by nature open, public spaces can be the target of a number of threats, such as terrorism, the presence of large crowds and panic movements, or other types of malicious ex tremist attacks. Ensuring that they remain safe, inclusive and open to all is a complex challenge.
Being the level of governance closest to citizens, local and regional au thorities are best placed to understand their concerns in relation to safe and open public spaces and implement appropriate measures to reduce feelings of insecurity. Public spaces require a security policy that is based on cooperation between the different organisations, the private sector and institutions concerned (local authorities, police, emergency services, urban planners and user representatives), in other words, genuine co-production of security that guarantees that public spaces remain both safe and accessible to all.4
of public spaces should be based on a holistic and horizontal approach, connecting EU and relevant national and local strategies, as well as public-
Council of the European Union (2021). Council Conclusions on the Protection of Public Spaces of 7 July 2021
4- Efus (2017). Manifesto: Security, Democracy and Cities – Co-producing Urban Security Policies.
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Preventing and protecting public spaces against terrorism
As stated in the new EU Security Union Strategy, adopted in June 2020, responsibility for combating crime and safeguarding security primarily lies with Member States. This publication is not intended to be an ex haustive account of the international and national efforts in the field of counter-terrorism. Rather, we will present and discuss the main insights and learnings we have garnered in this domain through PACTESUR and other EU-funded projects that we have led or in which we have been a partner, such as PRoTECT, Secu4All and IcARUS 5
Although European cities have been experiencing acts of terrorism for decades, it can be argued that the modern-day face of terrorism emerged in the wake of the 9/11 attack in New York in 2001.6 Together with the attacks in Madrid (2004, 193 killed) and London (2005, 56 killed), these events have marked a “before and after”. While in the past, terrorist attacks in Europe used to be mainly perpetrated by sepa ratist and political extremist movements acting independently from one another, the phenomenon is now more transnational in nature, which highlights the importance of a shared European response.
As a consequence, the role of local and regional authorities in safe guarding their residents and public spaces from such attacks has become more prominent, along with the traditional role of national governments and police. Indeed, we at Efus have noted over the past two decades the increasing mobilisation of our member local and regional authorities to directly act to safeguard urban public spaces. Efus members are particularly keen to explore the role and responsibil ities of local and regional authorities when faced with terrorist threats.7
spaces, affirming that they, “alongside national governments and inter national organisations and agencies, have a clear responsibility to protect their citizens against terrorist attacks and threats to a democratic way of life.”8 In the wake of the terrorist attacks in France and Belgium in January 2015,9 the EU (re)emphasised the need to enhance public space protection and community resilience. It developed several initia tives, guidelines and tools to support the sharing of knowledge to better understand and anticipate threats in public spaces. These initia tives are based on a holistic and horizontal approach, connecting EU and relevant national and local strategies, as well as public-private partnerships.10
In 2017, the European Commission adopted an action plan to support EU Member States in the protection of public spaces through funding, the exchange of promising practices and lessons learnt, enhancing co operation and facilitating networks. Thanks in part to Efus’ lobbying work to convey to European institutions the need to tackle urban security questions through a multi-stakeholder, local approach involv ing all relevant parties, a Partnership on the Security in Public Spaces of the Urban Agenda for the EU was established in 2019. Led jointly by Efus and the cities of Madrid (Spain) and Nice (France) and gathering 10 European cities, the Partnership sought to “provide concrete European responses to real needs identified at the local level, encourage the exchange and dissemination of good and innovative practices and allow better targeting of interventions as far as legislation or funding instru ments are concerned.” It produced a six-point action plan on issues such as evaluating artificial intelligence or developing security by design guidance (to name a couple), which is now being implemented.11
The key role of local and regional authorities
Since the early 2000s, the European Union has increasingly acknowl edged the key role of local and regional authorities in protecting public
5- Respectively, Public Resilience using Technology to Counter Terrorism (PRoTECT), Training local authorities to provide citizens with a safe urban environment by reducing the risks in public spaces (Secu4All), and Innovative Approaches to Security (IcARUS).
6- European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) (2017). Trends in terrorism.
7- Efus, Cities Against Terrorism (2007). Secucities: Training local representatives in facing terrorism
The Commission also developed different guidance materials and compiled available guidance. As a result of an extensive consultation process, good practices were identified to improve the protection of public places against terrorist attacks.12
8- Council of Europe. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. Resolution 159 (2003) on tackling terrorism the role and responsibilities of local authorities.
9- Attack against Charlie Hebdo magazine followed by an attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris, as well as an attack on police in Belgium.
10- Namely, the 2017 EU action plan to improve the protection of public spaces; European Commission staff working document on good practices to support the protection of public spaces 2019; the EU Security Union Strategy 2020-25; the EU counter-terrorism agenda.
11-Urban Agenda (2020). EU Partnership on Security in Public Spaces (2020), Action Plan.
12- Communication from the Commission of 20 March 2019 on good practices to support the protection of public spaces.
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1.3 The PACTESUR project: a global and integrated approach to public space protection
Initiated in the wake of the 2015 terror attacks in Europe, and in par ticular the 14 July 2016 attack against the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, the PACTESUR project follows a series of initiatives by the City of Nice, with the support of the European Commission and Efus, in the field of the prevention of and protection against terrorist threats affect ing public spaces. As a member of Efus, this municipality promoted the Declaration of Nice on the role of cities in preventing violent extremism and terrorism, which was co-written by the Euromed network of European and Mediterranean cities and Efus and adopted by both networks alongside 60 mayors from 18 countries.13
While there has recently been a slight decrease in terrorist attacks in the European Union (EU), the latest wave of attacks in France (Conflans Ste Honorine and Nice, October 2020), Germany (Dresden, October 2020) and Austria (Vienna, November 2020) show that the terrorist threat remains high in Europe.14 Public spaces continue to be targeted and criminals have adapted to heightened security measures by modi fying their modus operandi and using means that are more difficult to detect because they are part of everyday life, such as using a common vehicle (van or lorry) to ram into a place, or knives rather than guns. The evolution of this threat, which has become more diffuse and there fore more difficult to anticipate, remains a major challenge for EU Member States.
The PACTESUR project (January 2019–December 2022) aimed to empower cities and local actors in the field of public space security, mainly in the face of terrorist threats, but also against other risks inherent to public spaces. Through a bottom-up approach, PACTESUR gathered local decision makers, security forces, urban security experts, urban planners, front-line practitioners, designers and other profes sionals in order to shape new European local policies to secure public spaces against different types of threats.
Based on four pillars
13- It was published at the end of the Conference of Mayors of the Euro-Mediterranean region organised in September 2017 by the City of Nice and Euromed with the support of Efus, the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.
14- In 2021 there were 15 failed, foiled or completed terrorist attacks in the European Union, compared with 57 in the previous year. For more information: Europol (2022), European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
IN-DEPTH REFLECTION
An in-depth reflection on standards, legal frames and local governance.
SPECIALISED TRAINING
The development of specialised training for local security practitioners.
AWARENESS-RAISING
Raising awareness among citizens and politicians of their role in prevention and as security actors.
IDENTIFICATION
Identifying the most suitable local investments for securing open public spaces by sharing field experience.
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A multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary approach to public spaces
PARTNER CITIES AND REGIONS
Led by the City of Nice, the PACTESUR consortium included the City of Liège (Belgium), the City of Turin (Italy), the National Association of Italian Municipali ties (ANCI) Piemonte (Italy), the European Forum for Urban Security (Efus) and Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur.
THE EXPERT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
A group of 14 specialists from various disciplines, including architects, cultural geographers, security and cross-border cooperation experts.
A WORKING GROUP OF 11 CITIES
To exchange knowledge and promising practices relevant to security in urban public spaces.
Europe’s two latest crises – the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine – have (re)shifted citizens’ concerns. European citizens identify the economic situation as their top concern at EU level, followed by the environment and climate change and immigration. Health is still the main issue at the national level, slightly ahead of the economic situa tion of the country.
A PARTNERSHIP-BASED COURSE
A partnership-based course between the Sustainable Design School of Nice (now called Besign School) and the PACTESUR project focused its research on the need to apply human-centred design approaches to security.
Understanding threats and perceptions
Security, notably terrorism, was one of the main matters of concern for European citizens as per the December 2017 Eurobarometer of the European Commission. The October 2020 Eurobarometer shows, however, that it is now less of a concern, ranking in ninth place, with only 7% of respondents mentioning it as a top priority compared to 44% three years earlier.15
As stated in the new EU strategy for the Security Union, adopted in June 2020, the Covid-19 crisis “reshaped our notion of safety and security threats” and “highlighted the need to guarantee security both in the physical and digital environments.”16 The pandemic also changed the way we think about and use public spaces. During the pandemic, cities and their users favoured open-air events, pavements were widened to ensure social distancing, and temporary terraces were set up, some times too close to the road. These changes, some of which have remained, have created new situations that cities need to tackle in order to ensure they do not create new vulnerabilities in public spaces.
In order to understand the security challenges in public spaces, any other type of incident that has an impact on these spaces and that is likely to mobilise various security actors must be taken into account. The PACTESUR project has naturally evolved to not only include ter rorist attacks, crowd management and panic movements, but also climatic risks, such as fires or floods. Indeed, events such as wide spread floods in northern Europe in 2021 and wildfires that swept through huge swathes of Europe in the summer of 2022 (including, for the first time ever, London) show how exposed European cities are now to the consequences of climate change. How do they prepare for such disasters and increase the resilience of the public?
Another factor at play now (at the time of writing) is the energy crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has led a number of European cities to dim down public lighting, which in turn can have an effect on urban security at night, and on citizens’ feelings of security, in particular women and girls.
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15- Eurobarometer 2020 of the European Commission – European citizenship.
16- Communication from the Commission of 24 July 2020 on the EU Security Union Strategy.
