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From Needs to Solutions: "Enhancing the Civilian Crisis Response Capacity of the European Union"Brussels 14-15 November 2005 The European Union has great and ever growing potential within the field of civilian crisis response – both as an independent actor and as a supporter of a multitude of other responding organisations. This role motivated one of the recommendations of the 2004 ITCM conference. It was stated that acknowledging the unique mixture of resources that EU has, it should “play a lead role in developing a more strategic, holistic and consistent approach to field security and communications particularly with regard to the needs of civilian efforts.” In 2005, the recommendation materialised as cooperation between the CMI and the External Relations Directorate of the European Commission (EC). The cooperation culminated in Brussels on 14-15 November, when the EC, together with the CMI, organised a conference entitled “From Needs to Solutions: Enhancing the Civilian Crisis Response Capacity of the European Union”. The main objective of the conference was to generate ideas on how to enhance the civilian crisis response capacity of the EU with special focus on the EC contribution. This was well reflected in the addresses of Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Chairman of CMI, President Martti Ahtisaari, who opened the conference. The Commissioner reflected on the challenges on the political level, on working together with partners and on the use of information and communication technology. She also stated, that “crisis management only works if all actors, organisations, governments and non-governmental organisations are committed to work together towards a common achievable goal.” Chairman Ahtisaari called for an improved EU inter-pillar cooperation and highlighted the challenges caused by an increasingly dangerous field environment. In the conference, two expert workshops focused on how the use of information and communication technology could support and enhance efforts of the international crisis response community. Workshop 1 was facilitated by the CMI. It focused on the interagency connectivity and on the security of personnel in field operations, whereas the Workshop 2, facilitated by the EC, discussed the tools and practices to enhance the use of open source information in supporting the politica decision making and situational awareness. The discussions in the workshops centred on identifying the needs emanating from field operations and decision makers, matching the needs with available technological and institutional solutions, and on how the solutions could be introduced to and strengthened in the European agenda. In addition, a showcase expo of technology and peace building projects was organised within the conference facility to enable networking between participants. The number of participants amounted to almost 400 including experts from field operations and headquarters of non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations, private sector representatives, as well as EU member state, EC and the Council Secretariat representatives. For more information, please contact: Mr. Rob Watson
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 Conference AgendaBackground Paper
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