On 20th May, PSCE Secretary General Marie-Christine Bonnamour shared EUCCS Preparation’s journey from 2014, highlighting its advancements and goals towards 2030. What have been the latest development of EUCCS Preparation? What kind of approach is this upcoming critical communication network fostering in aiming to enhance Europe’s internal security?
On the CERIS stage, Marie-Christine gave a keynote presentation of our programme, featuring Oliver Seiffarth (DG HOME), and then engaged in a panel discussion with Tero Pesonen (TCCA), Dominick Vansevenant (Belgium national crisis center) and Jos Haemers (Dutch Polce) to discuss about current stakes and the needs of establishing this pan-European critical communication network.
During her presentation, Marie-Christine underlined the critical momentum of the project, which now engages 16 countries and over 500 practitioners. She highlighted the example of cross-border interoperability between Norway, Sweden, and Finland as a benchmark for the kind of pan-European cooperation EUCCS Prep aims to generalize. As outlined in the political document ProtectEU and Preparedness strategies, EUCCS is pivotal because it will enable first responders across Europe to collaborate and overall communicate via modern broadband systems in order to respond to crisis effectively and efficiently.
The panel that followed, featuring representatives from Dutch police, Belgium National crisis center and TCCA, emphasized the urgency of the mission. A recent Dutch-German incident revealed the ongoing lack of interoperable communication systems across borders-an issue that EUCCS directly addresses. Finland’s case, presented by Tero Pesonen, showed how political will and early regulation can turn secure broadband into operational reality.
Looking ahead, the discussion pointed toward integrating 5G/6G, AI, and non-terrestrial communication into the next iteration of EUCCS- an evolution fully aligned with the Commission’s 2024–2029 priorities, the Niinistö Report, and the ProtectEU strategy.