A safer Europe within our grasp

Peace and security are at the top of the EU's agenda. A close look at natural and man-made threats across the bloc will help Europe become more proactive in ensuring the safety of its citizens.

Our planet's security is being undermined in a number of ways, ranging from climate change and migration to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The EU has initiated a number of projects that investigate man-made and security threats in order to mitigate hazards and ensure the safety of its citizens. One of these initiatives is the EU-funded 'Changing multilateralism: The EU as a global-regional actor in security and peace' (EU-GRASP) project.

The project analysed security issues through case studies and outlined scenarios for future EU policy on external security relations. It assessed security concepts, aiming to bridge the gap between security theory and governance in an EU context.

One central objective of the project team was to build a comparative and sophisticated methodology that transcends the traditional notion of security. Another was to map bilateral, regional and global cooperation that the EU is involved in. Work in these two directions has yielded more robust and comprehensive research, including 23 case studies on 6 security issues selected by EU-GRASP. The topics involved regional conflict, terrorism, WMD proliferation, energy security in light of climate change, severe human rights violations and migration.

More details can be found at the following link: http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=OFFR_TM_EN&ACTION=D&RCN=6428