On 2 and 3 December 2019, the Commission organised two meetings under the EU Forum on the protection of public spaces. On the first day, the Policy Group met, which consists of policymakers from EU Member States. On the second day, a meeting of the public-private Operators’ Forum was held with the policymakers and representatives of private operators from a wide range of sectors, as entertainment, transport, etc.

In the Policy Group meeting, several projects financed by the “Internal Security Fund – Police” presented their first results as regards enhancing the protection of public spaces, focusing on physical protection against vehicle ramming, knowledge and training for law enforcement and a handbook of good practices.

An important subject was the protection of places of worship. Discussion with the policymakers and representatives of religious communities focussed on awareness raising, cooperation with public authorities, reporting of suspicious behaviour and sharing of good practices and crisis management procedures. The need for public support, cooperation, information collection and exchange was stressed.

The public-private Operators’ Forum focused on the sharing of good practices, the training of a pool of expert advisers on the use of the EU vulnerability assessment checklist, and awareness raising programmes in different Member States. Work will continue on the basis of the Commission’s Staff Working Document “Good practices to support the protection of public spaces”.

Future work will focus on:

• Raising awareness for the reporting of suspicious behaviour and on how to react in the case of an incident.
• Dissemination of good practices. 
• Crisis management procedures, including planning on how to react to an attack and a communication strategy.
• Appointing points of contact and establishing channels for communication between all stakeholders.