The Security Platform
The Steering Committee met on the 15 October 2009 at the UIC in Paris to approve activities in progress and to begin preparations for the UIC Security Congress in April 2010, meaning that TCDD was invited to attend.
It adopted the principle of a collective response (Colpofer, Security Platform, and CER) to the current European Committee for Standardization initiative on the security of the logistics chain.
It approved the European Commission’s submission to the European Parliament on the necessity of establishing a special identity document for rail personnel working across Schengen borders, following the example of aviation or shipping personnel. The UIC Security division will follow the implementation of this decision and will be in contact with the OSJD on the subject.
The working group “Schengen Acquis and Illegal Immigration” had previously held a meeting on the 24 and 25 September 2009 in Budapest with the European Agency FRONTEX and has visited the installations at the Zahony border point with representatives from the Hungarian (MAV) and Ukrainian (UZ) railways. photo scan border
The working group “Human factors” chaired by RZD (Y Mironov) analysed the first results of the survey sent out to members. It is going to broaden its composition and will set out its priorities for action at the next meeting to be held in Moscow in January 2010.
The European Group of Experts, Colpofer
The 51st Colpofer conference took place in Anvers on the 17 and 18 September 2009 at the invitation of Hendrik Vanderkimpen, member of the Colpofer Coordination Group. Philippe Salaun from the SNCF was elected President of Colpofer until the end of 2011. Conference participants were welcomed by the COE of SNCB holding, Jannie Haek, on a visit to the new railway station in Anvers.
Research
The Security division took part in the “European Security Research Conference SRC09” in Stockholm on the 29 and 30 September 2009 during which European priorities were presented. The importance of the inclusion of rail representatives in research projects on security technology was recalled for the calls for proposals as part of the 7th framework programme for research and development in place until 2013.
On the 5 October 2009 negotiations with the European Commission took place in Brussels over the research project ProtectRail, in which the Security division is involved alongside various members (LITRAIL, PKP PLK, RCA, RFI, SNCF, TCDD, and ZSSK). The project is due to start at the beginning of February 2010 for a 42-month period. UIC is in charge of the section “Information spreading” and is helping to define rail requirements. There will be a detailed presentation in UIC e-news when the project gets underway.
Sharing experience and spreading information
On the 8 and 9 September in Berlin Jacques Colliard chaired a conference “Public Transport Security: safeguarding passengers and infrastructure” organised by the European Railway Review with rail and urban transport representatives. The difficulties regarding transport and security on the occasion of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympics in London were given particular consideration.
Partnerships with institutions
On the 1 October Marie Hélène Bonneau took part in the meeting of the UNECE transport security task force which brings together representatives from Member States and rail stakeholders. This task force is working on reinforcing consistency between the rail security policies of different companies and on the possibility of an international authority, which was mentioned in the final declaration of the UIC global security congress in Marrakech in March 2009. The next meeting is set for November 2009 and the UIC is responsible for managing the rail presentations for the “UNECE Inland Transport Security Discussion Forum” which will take place in Geneva on the 29 and 30 January 2010.
In Astana (Kazakhstan) on the 12 and 13 October Jacques Colliard took part in the first experts’ meeting dedicated to the problem of border crossing procedures, as part of preparations for the XVIII OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum which will take place in February and May 2010.
The Security division has also been invited as a stakeholder to an expert workshop organised in December 2009 by the OSCE Action against Terrorism Unit.
