Safer together! Strengthening civil and military preparedness and readiness in Europe. An important role will be played by vigilant and organised citizens who are able to cushion any serious unforeseen event in the first 72 hours! This is the extreme synthesis of what emerged at the Conference on some of the themes of the Niinistö Report held in Mestre last Friday at the Voco Hotel and which saw a large and heartfelt participation.
The organizers, ECR MEP Elena Donazzan, member of the Committee on Security and Defense, and Dr. Enrico Gavagnin, Venice city councilor and police officer, have been working for years with the aim of conveying the issue of security to citizens.
The purpose is to “Raising public awareness of the risk landscape without fueling anxiety and giving citizens the tools to take greater responsibility for their own individual preparedness is of fundamental importance”.
The conference saw a panel of top-level experts: the Brigadier General (ris) of the Carabinieri Massimiliano Pigato, dr. Emanuel Bellini of the University of Rome 3, Dr. Simone DeBattisti of the think tanks FEEL. The speakers discussed the issues of Niinistö Report - delivered on October 30, 2024 to Ursula von der Leyen from the former Finnish Prime Minister Sauli Niinistö - comparing them with their professional experience.
Preparation to “anticipate, prevent, resist and respond” is therefore essential to maintaining peace in Europe.
To fully understand the importance of the work carried out and the issues addressed, which are of great relevance today, the salient critical points of the Report are reported below:
the rules-based global order is fragmenting;- extreme weather events will become more frequent and intense;
- security threat posed by Russia and other powers;
- cyber attacks and hybrid campaigns;
- strategic competition for raw materials and technologies;
- fragility, instability, conflicts and wars blur the boundaries between internal and external security;
- border control;
- new epidemics.
The recommendations are:
- decoding today's crisis and anticipating tomorrow's threats;
- allow the EU to function in all circumstances;
- ensure the speed of actions with structures and procedures suited to the purpose;
- strengthening citizen power as the backbone of societal resilience and preparedness;
- exploit the full potential of public-private partnerships;
- defeat malicious actors to deter hybrid attacks;
- expand Europe's defence efforts and unlock its potential;
- building mutual resilience with partners through assertive EU diplomacy;
- take advantage of the preparation economy by investing together in advance.
In light of the above, the senator Raffaele Speranzon, member of the 3a Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, in his greeting speech to those present, recalled that "there is no freedom without the prerequisite of security" and that "security must be thought and understood in much broader contexts than the traditional ones" e "we are talking about defense and not attack. It is necessary for our fellow citizens and businesses to be able to live in a free world". Furthermore, "Today Europe must take its final exams and do its part. If we do not have defense capabilities, we are more vulnerable and weaker".
The issue of security is therefore becoming increasingly pressing and absolutely necessary and citizens must do their part at least in the ability to resist and help themselves and others. during the first 72 hours.
Mr Donazzan he placed the intervention "on the current events we are experiencing and above all on the fact that many events have been known for a long time, but many people do not know because they are not sufficiently informed. The EU Parliament, therefore, obliges parliamentarians to carry out activities on the territory to disseminate, inform, make citizens aware of what the European institutions are. This comparison falls within this context"The Honourable Member highlights that "The Niinistö Report is an expression of a culture. It is even called the Finnish method! Which requires that everyone is responsible for safety". It is also interesting to learn the purpose of the reports drawn up: "to take a snapshot of the state of the Union. They are given on mandate and there have been three significant ones in the last three years". This is the Report "on defence readiness and preparedness in Europe". It is therefore important that there is a model of collaboration between professionals and citizens.
Dr Gavagnin he explained that safety also involves IT aids such as App of the project Extract Personalized Evacuation Route and for the occasion he also introduced the technical-scientific working group of the European project that was present in the room. "The use case is in Venice and it is to take the citizen from one part of the city to another using his cell phone inside which in case of need, we hypothesized a fire but it could also be a bombing, a personalized rescue route is immediately sent that will guide him to his destination".
This in very brief terms is part of what is requested by the Niinistö Report and it so happened that Dr. Gavagnin's happy intuition anticipated the report by two years and then with the working group he almost reached the final stages of the App before the official presentation. It all started as a neighborhood watch, seen through the "policeman's glasses", but then everything developed to create a network and enter the Niinistö. Citizens who work in neighborhood watch are bearers of the culture of observation and above all in their territory they know space and time. The project Extract It is in fact the development of neighborhood watch in academia and in defense.
Dr Bellini he clearly explained what national interest is abroad, for example in pre-EU Germany: "there was a briefing in the Universities and Academies where the Government told German researchers to pursue German interests, after which they would go and do European projects".
Here are the systems to counter emergencies and protect the assets of the State have an increasingly important role. The "Digital Heritage Security and Resilience" is the answer. The functional and structural damage of the attacks Cyber to the cultural structures of the State, the so-called Digital Cultural Assets (DCA), can create immense and long-lasting damage over time. A clear economic example: “the value of the Colosseum as asset social is equal to approximately 77 billion euros. It contributes 1,4 billion euros per year to the Italian economy”.
This therefore clearly demonstrates the potential damage to which the country is exposed if its defenses are not adequately strengthened. According to the researcher: "The unique feature that distinguishes us in the world is our cultural heritage". But then comes the real crux of the problem related to the issue of security: "The digital aspect, however, has not been very focused especially considering that they have become a target. Since the war in Ukraine everything has changed, especially since 2023". Therefore a cyber attack has its weight and the damages are significant as well demonstrated by the cases already occurred in Europe and in theInserting documents fake in the historical archives. This operation is a very dangerous poisoning of the historical memory and credibility of the State.
In 2023 various Cyber attack have hit real cultural institutions such as the British Library "blocked for a year. The catalog was attacked, there is talk of access to millions of digital documents with damages of millions of euros"; the Berlin Natural History Museum "all personal data of the person who bought the ticket" and others and in 2024 Internet Archive which is "the world archive of all works. It is the collection and historical memory not only of what is on the internet but also of digitalization". For what purpose? Ransoms, blackmail, sensitive data of the privacy. Digital cultural heritage must be well protected against the risk of suffering enormous damage because "once you go digital you expand the attack surface".
As regards the innovation strategy, the Dr. De Battisti, co-founder of FEel, think tanks operational based in Milan, illustrated how local and international challenges that require innovation are increasingly addressed with a defined strategy Govtech, or "Whole of Government" (of the integrated government). Also indicated the Niinistö Report use this perspective. It means building and managing and services in a public-private perspective (both - corporate that with startup and SMEs) with the involvement of citizens throughout the process. This approach has been used to discuss and test solutions for a variety of challenges - smart city/smart land - to the development of local economies, from disaster prevention strategies with the AI, to the financial inclusion of the poorest billion people, from European cooperation to that in the Mediterranean, in GovTech Forum international, second edition, held in Milan last March 13th and 14th.
"According to the World Bank ranking, Italy is among the leaders in Govtech. We have many experiences and solutions in this sector, and we can be an important point of reference. The experience and format of the Forum - which alternates high-level contributions with co-design phases and the production of research, papers, proposals and operational models - can be an inspiration to involve a structured local and international ecosystem to develop innovations and solutions, raise general attention on the challenges that are the subject of this conference: from cybersecurity, to local security, to defense".
The general Pigato he then focused his speech on the importance that "the citizen to be involved must be mainly a member of retired police forces", because training requires a very long time but it can be shortened: “What civil society lacks in managing security is instead present in those who have significant experience in the Armed Forces.” So, going into specifics, the discharged are “already selected, trained, with consolidated experience and knowledge not only of a procedural nature, but above all psychological, moral, ethical, cultural”.
The message conveyed by the general in summary is: in the event of a crisis, having qualified, trained and well-prepared people available can only bring benefits immediately after the crisis itself because they already know what to do, how to coordinate and act with balance.
From the above, during the conference, awareness and a clear will to inform, train, to be ready for any eventuality emerged in order to protect the State and its citizens. Naturally, all this is a challenging, but achievable given and considering the work done and the esteem earned in the field, with appreciation on an international level.
Photo: OpenAI / author
