Brussels, 03/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Public/Private Security Forum was held in Brussels on 19 and 20 December 2005, with the overriding objective of identifying key elements required to activate effective European partnerships and combine the expertise, resources and intelligence of the public and private sectors in order to fight organised crime, terrorism and threats to critical national infrastructures. The Congress was co-financed under the European Union's AGIS programme and developed through a partnership between the United Kingdom Home Office, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior, the Luxemburg Ministry of Justice, the Finnish Ministry of Interior, Europol and the International Security Management Association (ISMA) and supported by the Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security of the European Commission. During the meeting, the representative of the Austrian secret services advanced the case for close cooperation between the secret services and European industry, which provides valuable information.
During the JHA Council of February 2004, Austria had strongly supported the idea of a European information service to allow the earliest identification possible of potential threats to EU security, particularly from terrorist attacks.
In addition to the more than 300 public and private sector representatives, EU bodies (Europol and Eurojust), international organisations, non-governmental organisations, industry associations and academia were also represented at the Forum in in camera session.
The Irish Presidency, in the first semester of 2004, had advanced the creation of public/private partnerships and had undertaken to explore the various ways of encouraging cooperation between police authorities and the private sector in the fight against organised crime. In particular, it organised a conference on this subject in Dublin in November 2003. What is new is the willingness to put forward recommendations that could assist the Commission when, in accordance with the action plan for the implementation of the Hague Programme, it sets out its Action Plan on public/private partnerships in this area in 2006.