46 days/419 hours of special training, the combination of practice and theory with emphasis on practical field exercises has delivered 30 new CBRN Security Managers to Europe! This is the result of the SE-CBRN-URE project funded by the Internal Security Fund (EC DG HOME). “We have educated a group of highly specialised CBRN Security Managers,” said the project’s coordinator Dr Michał Bijak from the University of Łódź at the dissemination event on 12 October 2018 in Łódź, Poland.
Fifteen officers from Poland and fifteen from eight other EU countries received diplomas from this special training, accompanied by the handbook for the CBRNE Security Managers. Addressing the graduates, Captain Mariusz Grasza, from the Polish Police Headquarters, said that the training was very necessary since an “effective CBRN response requires knowledge and skills.”
The CBSS Secretariat’s Civil Security team is actively working with CBRNE issues since the adoption of the Joint Position on Enhanced Cooperation in the Civil Protection Area by the 15th Meeting of Directors General for Civil Protection in the BSR, in May 2017. One of the prioritised areas of the Joint Position is to strengthen the cross-sectoral cooperation on CBRNE preparedness. To this end, the CBSS Secretariat’s Civil Security team has coordinated the STAC-CBRNE project, with funding from the Swedish Institute, and has facilitated the process where a network of CBRNE experts in the BSR has been created. One of the most important outcomes of the STAC-CBRNE project is the upcoming large stakeholder forum (Treff BSR – CBRNE). The conference in Lodz presented state-of-the-art training material that should be shared with a wider audience of experts, and the upcoming Treff BSR – CBRNE will be an excellent event to share this material!