Conclusion and recommendations

Local and regional authorities are on the front line to identify and respond to issues that concern citizens the most. They have outstand ing capabilities for innovation and solidarity, and for designing inte grated, sustainable policies.

On the other hand, protecting public spaces is a constantly evolving challenge, which requires regularly revising and updating strategies, policies and measures. The evolving nature of terrorism and the emer gence of new security threats call upon cities and regions to step up their efforts and devise strategies that better equip them to respond to such threats affecting public spaces. Recent climate disasters have highlighted how climate change is set to increasingly affect our urban public spaces in the near future. How do cities prepare and adapt? The current energy crisis and the fact that cities across Europe are dimming (or turning off) public lighting at night calls for revisiting its role in public security. How do you keep a city safe at night and citizens safe from the fear of crime without, or with less, public lighting? With the work from home culture borne out of the Covid pandemic, should we now consider the virtual space as another dimension of our urban public spaces? How do we protect that space, and whom in it?

These are some of the questions that have recently emerged regarding the protection of urban public spaces and the role of local authorities in doing so. The European Forum for Urban Security (Efus) works perma nently on this key issue for local authorities, whether through other EU-funded projects, such as IcARUS and Secu4All, or through its regular activities, such as its Security, Democracy and Cities (SDC) conference, its dedicated working groups, and the numerous work shops, web conferences and other meetings it regularly organises onand offline. This issue will be a central topic in Efus’ upcoming IcARUS and SDC conferences, both scheduled for 2024.

Concluding four years of work on a wide range of issues related to the protection of public spaces against terrorist and other threats, the

90 91

Conclusion >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

PACTESUR project proposed a series of recommendations for European local and regional authorities that are expressed in the Dec laration of Brussels, which we publish hereafter. It was adopted at the end of the project’s final conference in that city, on 23-24 November 2022. One of the Declaration’s central planks is that local and regional authorities, as the level of governance closest to citizens, have a key role to play in protecting public spaces and as such should be better listened to and supported by national governments and European in stitutions. Another key idea is that improving and/or strengthening the security of public spaces should always be done while preserving their inherent openness, thus the possibility for all groups of the population to access and use them. Based on these two basic principles, the Decla ration suggests several ways in which local and regional authorities can intervene to better protect their public spaces, which all rely on multi-stakeholder partnerships, i.e. the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, whether they are the local police, local businesses, the creative sector or, above all, citizens themselves.

Recommendations

The Declaration of Brussels

Adopted in Brussels on 23 November 2022

We, local elected officials and representatives of local and regional au thorities that are members of the PACTESUR project, on the basis of the Nice Declaration of 29 September 2017 calling for action to prevent violent extremism and ensure the security of European and Mediterra nean cities; of the Declaration adopted on 22 October 2021 in Nice by Efus members during the Security, Democracy and Cities international conference; of the work carried out over the past four years in the framework of the PACTESUR project, and on the basis of the consen sus established within this partnership,

We strongly believe that:

We play a central role in the development and implementation of cross-cutting security policies based on a global and integrated approach to the protection of public spaces.

We share a common reflection on the means to be implemented to better protect our urban public spaces in the face of evolving threats while ensuring that they remain open and accessible to all.

We have a lot to gain from furthering our exchanges on our local strat egies, our innovative tools and our best practices.

We are fully engaged in a process of continuous and productive collab oration with national and European institutions to implement appro priate policies and real actions with the support of a community of multidisciplinary international experts.

We are also invested in local security partnerships as local actors are often best placed to identify, prevent and manage issues on the ground.

We, local elected officials and representatives of the local and regional authorities that are members of the PACTESUR project, gathered at the closing event of the PACTESUR project, commit to:

Recognise the evolving nature of the threats and risks inherent to public spaces. Such consideration reinforces the need for frequent risk assessments.

Prioritise responses to threats based on risk and vulnerability assess ments in order to promote a preventive approach and design tailored and targeted solutions to deliver safer public spaces.

Adopt a comprehensive and integrated security approach, where the installation of equipment is considered an additional element as part of a general security policy for the protection of public spaces, which involves all the competent local services and not the only local security actors.

92 93

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Also consider temporary security solutions instead of investing only in permanent solutions. An integrated and comprehensive approach to security must combine short and long term solutions and be able to adapt to evolving situations.

Prioritise the development of a prevention culture as regards security in order to improve public perceptions and strengthen citizen partici pation in the decision-making process.

Encourage civil society initiatives by promoting solutions that are creative, add an artistic or cultural value, or are seamlessly integrated in the urban landscape, and by paying particular attention to solutions that have an impact on attractiveness, accessibility and openness.

Improve communication and awareness actions before, during and after the installation of physical security equipment in order to increase public acceptance.

Respond to legal, societal and ethical concerns when planning and managing public spaces, in particular by providing the necessary guar antees for the protection of fundamental rights.

Continue to work in close cooperation with European institutions and bring citizens closer to the European Union through exchanges and enhanced collaborations between local, regional and European levels of urban governance.

We, local elected officials and representatives of the local and regional authorities that are members of the PACTESUR project, invite the European institutions to:

Further develop the harmonisation of standards, especially in terms of equipment, and promote the exchange of good practices for the protec tion and development of public spaces.

Continue their support for the exchange of experience and cooperation between European cities on urban security.

Facilitate European cities’ and communities’ access to funding, advice and training to enable them to respond to topical security challenges.