Source: EURLEX
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# 52012DC0417

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE Security Industrial Policy Action Plan for an innovative and competitive Security Industry /\* COM/2012/0417 final \*/**

  

1.        Introduction

Providing security is one of the central
concerns of any society. There is no policy area without a crucial component of
security. A safe and secure environment is the very basis on which any stable
society is founded upon. A competitive EU based security industry offering
solutions for enhanced security can make a substantial contribution to the
resilience of European society.

The security industry represents a sector
with a significant potential for growth and employment. Over the last ten years
the global security market has grown nearly tenfold from ~€10 billion to a
market size of ~€100 billion in 2011. Numerous studies
show that the EU's as well as the worldwide security market will continue to
have a growth rate which is beyond the average GDP growth.[1]

In response to this significant potential
for market growth, the Commission made the security industry one of the
essential parts of the EU 2020 flagship initiative "An Integrated
Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era Putting Competitiveness and
Sustainability at Centre Stage".[2]
Therein the Commission announced the launch of a dedicated initiative on a
Security Industry Policy.

This Action Plan is the first stepping
stone of this dedicated initiative. The overarching aim
is to enhance growth and increase employment in the EU's security industry.

Thanks to their level of technological
development many EU (security) companies are still among the world leaders in
most of the segments of the security sector. Recent evolutions and market
forecasts do, however, indicate that the market shares of European companies on
the global market are bound to decrease constantly over the next years.
Industry forecasts and independent studies predict that the current market
share of EU companies in the security sector could drop by one fifth from
around 25% of the world market in 2010 to 20% in 2020, if no action is launched
to enhance the competitiveness of the EU security industry.

The market leading US companies are still
the technological front runners, they additionally also benefit from a
harmonised legal framework and a robust internal market. This gives them not
only a reassuring basis but also the benefit of a clearly recognised and
distinguishable US brand, which has proven to be a highly valuable advantage
compared to EU companies in terms of international competition.

This lack of a similar "EU brand"
is especially critical if one considers that the central future markets for
security technologies will not be in Europe but in emerging countries in Asia,
South America and the Middle East.

Asian countries are closing the
technological gap that separates them from EU companies at an increasing rate.
Without a technological advantage, the EU companies will be confronted with
fierce competition, also in view of the production cost disadvantage often
faced by EU firms.

The primary aim of the Commission is thus
to establish a better functioning Internal European Market for security
technologies. Favourable Internal Market conditions, enhancing competition and
lowering production costs through the exploitation of scale economies, are also
essential to strengthen the position of the EU security industry in those
emerging countries that represent the future of the security sector. A special
emphasis should be given to the support for SMEs in their efforts to access
international markets in third countries.

The European Security Research and
Innovation Forum (ESRIF), the subsequent Commission Communication[3]already addressed a number of
these issues. For the ICT sector the promotion of security is an integral part
of the equipments and products being offered by ICT companies and is key to
future competitiveness. This will also be adressed in the the upcoming European
Strategy for Internet Security. To date, however, there has not been a
consistent EU-wide approach to make the EU security industry more competitive
and innovative.

As present studies and stakeholder opinions[4] have shown, the pressure of
global competition will target manufacturing of products and technologies
rather than services, as those form the vast majority of export potential in
the security industry. This Action Plan therefore does not cover security
services as such (e.g. on site security personnel), but only those security
services that relate to the installation and maintenance of security devices.

The Commission will make use of all the
tools at its disposal to create a true Internal Market for security
technologies, thus providing a strong home base for the EU security industry with
a view to gain market shares in emerging markets.

The
Commission will ensure that any initiatives taken for the development of the
Internal Market for security technologies respect the Charter of Fundamental
Rights, particularly the right to privacy and personal data protection.

2.2.        The EU Security Industry And Market

The global security market is estimated to
be worth some €100 billion (2011 figure) with around 2 million persons employed
worldwide. The EU security market has an estimated market value in the range of
€26 billion to €36.5 billion with around 180,000 employees (2011 figures).

However, there is currently no clear definition of the security industry and a methodical
classification of this industry is hindered by a number of factors:

·
The security industry is not covered as such by
the main statistical nomenclatures (NACE, Prodcom, etc.).

·
The production of security-related items is
hidden under a wide range of headings. Statistics for these headings do not
distinguish between security and non-security related activities.

·
There is no statistical data source available at
European level from the industry itself.

·
From a supply-side perspective, procurers of
security equipment and systems can be reluctant to provide information on
security expenditures.

In order to remedy the lack of data on the
security industry and its market, the Commission will develop an empirical
basis on which more reliable figures on the security markets can be obtained.
Cooperation with the main trade associations is essential to such an
undertaking.

The EU security industry can nevertheless
broadly be subdivided into the following sectors[5]:

·
aviation security;

·
maritime security;

·
border security;

·
critical infrastructure protection;

·
counter-terror intelligence (including cyber
security and communication);

·
crisis management/civil protection;

·
physical security protection; and

·
protective clothing.

The security
market has three distinctive features:

(1)
It is a highly fragmented market divided
along national or even regional boundaries. Security,
being one of the most sensitive policy fields, is one of the areas where Member
States are hesitant to give up their national prerogatives.

(2)
It is an institutional market. In large parts the security market is still an institutional
market, i.e. the buyers are public authorities. Even in areas where it is a
commercial market, the security requirements are still largely framed through
legislation.

(3)
It has a strong societal dimension. Whilst security is one of the most essential human needs, it is also
a highly sensitive area. Security measures and technologies can have an impact
on fundamental rights and often provoke fear of a possible undermining of
privacy.

3.3.        The main Problems faced by the EU Security Industry

These three distinctive features of the
security market are also the determinants for the three main problems that the
EU security industry faces:

(1)
The fragmentation of the EU security market

The main problem is the highly fragmented
nature (e.g. the lack of harmonised certification procedures and standards) of
the EU security market. Divergent approaches have effectively led to the
creation of at least 27 different security markets, each of them being split
into a large number of security sectors.

This not only creates a rather unique situation
with respect to the Internal Market, but has also a considerable negative
impact on both the supply side (industry) and the demand side (public and
private purchasers of security technologies). It leads to high barriers to
market entry and makes true economies of scale very difficult, if not
impossible. Moreover, it leads to a lack of competition among suppliers and
suboptimal use of public money.

(2)
The gap between research and market

When performing R&D on new
technologies, it is often very difficult for the EU based security industry to
predict whether there will be in the end a market uptake, or even to get some
sort of reassurance that there will be a market at all. While this is a
widespread problem which can also be found across many industrial sectors, it
is particularily pertinent for the security industry, which is mostly faced
with an institutional market.

This leads to a number of negative
consequences: for example, potentially promising R&D concepts not being
explored, which in turn means that certain technologies that could improve the
security of the citizen are not available to the demand side.

(3)
The societal dimension of security
technologies

The societal acceptance of new products and
technologies is a general challenge across different industrial sectors. There
are, however, a number of specificities that distinguish security technologies
from other areas. Security technologies might directly or indirectly concern
fundamental rights, such as the rights for respect for private and family life,
protection of personal data, privacy or human dignity.

The problems assosciated to the societal
acceptance of security technologies results in a number of negative
conseqences. For industry it means the risk of investing in technologies which
are then not accepted by the public, leading to wasted investment. For the
demand side it means being forced to purchase a less controversial product
which however does not entirely fulfil the security requirements.

4.4.        Tackling the Problems

The Commission identified a number of key
policy actions to enhance the competitiveness of the EU security industry,
stimulate its growth and promote the creation of jobs. The key policy actions
concern:

·
Overcoming market fragmentation, through: the creation of EU wide/international standards, the
harmonisation of EU certification/conformity assessment procedures for security
technologies and a better exploitation of synergies between security and
defence technologies.

·
Reducing the gap from research to market, by: aligning the funding programmes and an enhanced exploitation
of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) routes, as well as the full use of
Pre-commercial procurement (PCP) in the context of security research in Horizon
2020[6].

·
Better integration of the societal dimension, by thoroughly assessing social impacts including impacts on
fundamental rights, and by creating mechanisms to test the societal impact
during the R&D phase.

4.1. Overcoming market fragmentation

4.1.1. Standardisation

Standards play a major role in defragmenting
markets and helping industry in achieving economies of scale. Standards are
also of upmost importance for the demand side, notably with regard to
interoperability of technologies used by first responders, law enforcement
authorities, etc. Additionally, standards are essential for ensuring uniform
quality in the provision of security services. Creating EU-wide standards and
promoting them on a world wide level is also a vital component of the global
competitiveness of the EU security industry.

However, only a few EU-wide standards exist
in the security area. Divergent national standards pose a major obstacle for
the creation of a true internal market for security, thus hindering the
competitiveness of EU industry. Overcoming these national divergences is a quintessential
step, if the EU wants to contribute significantly to the creation of global
standards.

The Commission already announced in its
Communication on a Strategic Vision for European Standards the need to speed up
standardisation efforts in the security area[7].
Therefore, the Commission mandated in 2011 the European Standardisation
Organisations to gather a detailed overview of existing international, European
and national standards in the security area, as well as to set out a list of
standardisation gaps. Major gaps were identified in the following areas:

–
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and
Explosives – minimum detection standards as well as sampling standards,
including in the area of aviation security;

–
Border security – common technical and
interoperability standards for automated border control systems, as well as
standards for biometric identifiers; and

–
Crisis management/ Civil protection – standards
for communication interoperability, as well as interoperability of command and
control, including organisational interoperability, as well as mass
notification of the population.

Action
1: Based on these initial priorities, the
Commission will ask the European Standardisation Organisations to establish
concrete and detailed standardisation roadmaps. These standardisation roadmaps
should focus on the next generation of tools and technologies. To do so,
end-user and security industry involvement and policy coherence will be
essential.

Implementation
period: from mid 2012

4.1.2. Certification/ conformity
assessment procedures

There are currently, no EU-wide
certification systems for security technologies. National systems differ
widely, thus significantly contributing to the fragmentation of the security
market. The Commission has identified areas where[8], in an initial phase, it would
make the most sense to set up an EU-wide certification system, starting with:

–
airport screening (detection) equipment; and

–
alarm systems[9]

As regards airport screening equipment,
there exists a whole body of EU legislation which sets out performance
requirements for such equipment[10].
However, this legislation does not contain the required conformity assessment
mechanism so that certification of screening equipment in one Member State
would be mutually recognised in any other Member State. The lack of harmonised
standards and legally binding conformity assessment of airport screening
equipment at the EU level causes fragmentation of the Internal Market.

As regards alarm systems, some European
performance standards already exist. Moreover, there exists the industry-led
certification mechanism CertAlarm. However, this system is faced with the
problem that it is privately run and that Member State authorities have no
obligation to accept certificates established under the scheme.

In the future, products certified on the
basis of an EU wide certification system could receive an "EU Security
Label", similar to the CE marking used in the field of product safety. As
suggested by ESRIF, such a label could act as a ‘seal of quality’ for security
products (made and validated in the EU).

It is conservatively estimated that for
these two product categories industry would be able to make savings in terms of
testing and certification costs of up to €29 million per year.

Harmonising the certification procedures
for airport screening systems and alarm systems should also have a positive
effect on the creation of a clearer European identity for these technologies, a
possible "EU brand". This brand" should contribute to enhancing
the global competitiveness of the EU companies with regards to their US and
Chinese competitors.

Action
2: Subject to a thorough impact assessment
analysis and consultation of stakeholders, the Commission would propose two legislative
proposals: one to establish an EU wide harmonised certification system for
airport screening (detection) equipment; and one to establish an EU harmonised
certification system for alarm systems. The objective is to achieve mutual
recognition of certification systems.

Implementation
period: mid 2012 – end of 2014

4.1.3. Exploiting synergies between
security and defence technologies

One can clearly distinguish between a
(civilian) security and a (military) defence market. However, the existence of
these two separate markets can in itself be considered a fragmentation. To some
extent, this fragmentation is normal, given that the industrial base supplying
these two markets is not fully identical and that the end-users differ,
application areas differ, and so do the requirements. However, this
fragmentation is felt upwards at the level of R&D and capability
development, and is felt downwards at the level of standardisation. It leads
sometimes to the duplication of R&D efforts and the impossibility of making
use of economies of scale due to differing standards in these two markets.

As regards R&D, civil-military
synergies are currently being sought with the European Defence Agency (EDA)
through the European Framework Cooperation. Under this cooperation there
is an on-going coordination between the Security Theme of the 7th
Framework Programme (FP7) and EDA's defence research activities. The aim is to
synchronise this research with a view to avoid duplications and to profit from
possible synergies. The Commission intends to continue and expand this
cooperation under Horizon 2020.

As regards even more upstream cooperation,
whilst such cooperation in view of a more synchronised capability planning
would be useful, the Commission considers that in the civil security domain
there is such a multitude of public authorities involved that it is currently
not possible to establish common capability planning with the defence domain,
where there is usually only one actor per Member State, i.e. the national
defence ministries.

As regards downstream cooperation, the
Commission considers that the development of 'hybrid standards', i.e. standards
that apply both to civil security and defence technologies, should be actively
pursued in areas where technologies are the same and application areas are very
similar. The Commission is considering a number of promising areas for such
'hybrid standards', including software defined radio and certain technological
requirements for unmanned aircraft systems (e.g. sense and avoid technologies,
airworthiness requirements). For software defined radio alone it is estimated
that hybrid standards could lead to an overall sales increase of one billion
Euros.

Action
3: The Commission intends to issue, in close
cooperation with the European Defence Agency, standardisation mandates to the
European Standardisation Organisations for 'hybrid standards'. A first mandate
will soon be issued for software defined radio.

Implementation
period: from mid 2012

4.2. Reducing the gap from research to
market

4.2.1. Aligning funding programmes,
exploiting IPR routes

The Commission's proposal for Horizon 2020,
establishes a close link with a number of policy areas, notably with home
affairs. To this end, Horizon 2020 foresees specific IPR rules for security
research, allowing the Commission and its Member States not only to have access
to the foreground of security research projects, but also to make – on fair and
reasonable terms – use of that foreground in subsequent procurement[11].

This should lead to a more direct and
faster exploitation of the results of EU security research by the national
authorities and a closer cooperation with the mostly public end-users, thus
enhancing greatly the efforts to overcome the gap from research to market in
the security area.

In addition, the two components of the
Internal Security Fund, proposed for the next financial period, dealing
respectively with external borders and visa and police cooperation, preventing
and combating crime, and crisis management, foresee the possibility for Union
funded actions to test and validate results stemming from EU security research
projects[12].

For this possibility to be used
effectively, the specific IPR rules for security research, which allow the
Commission to use these IPR on fair and reasonable grounds, are a necessary
feature, in order to be able to exploit security research results in subsequent
testing and validation.

Where Union capacities are needed, the
Commission will consider reinforcing these testing and validating measures
through the actual purchase of prototypes for the EU, if adequate.

Action
4: The Commission will make full use of the new
IPR rules provided for security research in Horizon 2020[13], in particular through the
possibility provided in the two specific programmes of the Internal Security
Fund to test and validate results stemming from EU security research projects.

Implementation
period: from beginning 2014

4.2.2. Pre-commercial procurement

PCP[14]
is a very useful tool in bridging the gap from research to market. The Commission
underlined its importance already in its Innovation Union Communication[15], in particular in domains,
where there is an institutional market or a market largely driven by
legislation, given that public procurement of innovative products and services
is vital for improving the quality and efficiency of public services at a time
of budget constraints. Eventually, PCP should enable public users to play a
more central role in the innovation cycle through the purchase of novel
technologies. Procurers should act as "agents of change".

Nevertheless, to date only few Member
States have made use of PCP schemes in the security area. At EU level, in the
FP7 Security Theme, a pre-operational validation scheme was introduced in the
call of 2011, acting as a precursor for a possible future PCP scheme.

Horizon 2020 contains a specific PCP
instrument, which should greatly help in overcoming practical hurdles linked to
the implementation of PCP.

Based on the US SBIR[16] experience, a tentative assumption of a 1% increase in the annual growth rate
due to R&D support through a PCP scheme would lead
in the security industry to extra sales of 2 billion Euros between today and
2020.[17]

Action
5: The Commission intends to make full use of
the PCP instrument set out in Horizon 2020 and devote a significant part of the
security research budget on this instrument. This novel funding approach should
bring research closer to the market by bringing together industry, public
authorities and end users from the very beginning of a research project. The
Commission considers that border security and aviation security are the most
promising areas for undertaking PCP.

The
Commission will also encourage Member States to launch similar initiatives at
national level, in compliance with relevant EU public procurement law.

Implementation
period: from beginning 2014

4.2.3. Access to international
procurement markets

The EU's public procurement market is
traditionally very open. However, this is not always matched by a similar
degree of openness by our trading partners. Worldwide, only a quarter of the
world's procurement market is open for international competition.

The Commission has proposed a Regulation[18] to help
open worldwide public procurement markets and to ensure European businesses
have fair access to them. This Regulation is expected
to provide a number of tools that will ensure that these objectives are reached.

Action
6: The Commission will make full use of the
instruments at its disposal to ensure a fair access of its security industry to
international procurement markets. Given the sensitive nature of security
technologies, utmost attention will be given to relevant export regulations.

Implementation
period: from end 2013

4.2.4. Third party liability
limitation (TPLL)

To overcome the gap from research to market
and in particular to ensure that the threat of liability does not deter
security industry from developing, deploying and commercializing technologies
and services that could save lives, the US introduced after 9/11 the US Safety
Act. The US Safety Act provides for legal liability limitations for providers
of anti-terrorism technologies and services. In third country markets, this
legislation might give the market leading US companies a competitive advantage
over their EU counterparts.

It is evident, that the US Safety Act is
born out of the specific US legal context, where class action is a recurrent
feature. Whilst it is not foreseen to establish an equivalent to the US Safety
Act in Europe, there is, however, a need to better understand and study how far
liability issues deter industry from bringing promising technologies and
services to the market.

No general consensus exists among industry
stakeholders on this issue and a thorough legal analysis on the compatibility
with national or EU regulations has yet to be conducted.

Action7: The Commission has launched a tender for a major study analysing
the legal and economic implications of third party liability limitation. The
study will also look into possible alternatives to TPLL as introduced through
the US Safety Act, such as for example a voluntary industry fund, a Commission
recommendation, etc. This study will take due account of fundamental rights'
implications.

Implementation
period: 2012 – mid 2013

4.3. Better integration of the societal
dimension

4.3.1. Societal impact
"checking" during the R&D phase

A better integration of the societal
dimension into security industry activities would help in reducing the
uncertainty of societal acceptance. This should allow for an efficient use of
R&D investment, as well as allowing the demand side to purchase products
which fulfill entirely their security requirements and at the same time are
accepted by society.

The Commission, therefore, considers that
the societal and fundamental rights impact should already be taken into account
through societal engagement before and during the R&D phase. This would
allow addressing societal issues early on in the process.

The Commission already undertook a number
of activities with a view to mainstream the societal dimension in the FP7
Security Theme. In view of Horizon 2020, it is, however, now time to
consolidate these efforts, to engage society in research and innovation and
make societal impact checking more systematic.

The Commission will involve society and
make societal impact testing an obligatory part, where appropriate, of all its
future security research projects[19].
The Commission will specifically "check" the societal impact of new
technologies in all its security PCP schemes outlined above.

4.3.2. Privacy by design and privacy
by default during the design phase

On the one hand, it is extremly difficult
to translate societal considerations into technological requirements, which is
further complicated by the wide variety of security products on the market. On
the other hand, societal issues related to security vary considerably among
Member States.

The Commission, therefore, considers that
the best way forward is to introduce the concept of "privacy by
design" and "privacy by default"[20] at the design phase. To this
end, the economic operator wishing to have his production process audited as
being "privacy by design" fit, would have to fulfil a set of
requirements defined through an appropriate EU standard. This standard will be
voluntary. The Commission is, however, convinced that there will be strong peer
pressure for companies to follow such a standard which should gain a similar
recogition value as for example the ISO 9000 management standard.[21]

Action
8: The Commission will issue a mandate to the
European Standardisation Organisations to develop a standard modelled on
existing quality management schemes, but applied to the management of privacy
issues during the design phase.

Implementation
period: mid 2012 – mid 2015

5.5.        Monitoring

The monitoring of the announced policy
measures will be overseen through a dedicated expert group set up by the
Commission. This group will bring together all relevant actors in the field of
security.

This group will meet at least once per year
to monitor progress.

6.6.        Conclusion

This is the first Action Plan by the
Commission specifically targeting the security industry. Not only are the
announced measures, therefore, a first, but also the comprehensiveness of the
approach, ranging from the R&D phase up to standardisation and certification,
a novelty. Depending on future assessments, possible next areas for
harmonisation could include the land and maritime transport sectors as well as
addressing TPLL.

It should be kept in mind that all the
Actions listed in this document are closely linked to the willigness of the
Member States to cooperate with the European Institutions, standardisation
bodies, public and private stakeholders to overcome the fragmentation of the EU
security markets. The Commission thus encourages the Member States to support
the Commission in its initiative to enhance the competitiveness of the EU
security companies and reduce the existing barriers to market entry.

The Commission is convinced that the policy
measures outlined in this Action Plan will strongly contribute to improve the
competitiveness of the European Security Industry. The Commission's objective
is to provide to the EU security industry a strong home base from which to be
able to expand into new and emerging markets, where in the future major growth
for the security market can be expected.

Such growth inside and outside the EU has
to go hand in hand with the reinforcement of measures aimed at better
integrating the societal dimension into security industry activities. Privacy
by design and respect of fundamental rights needs to be embedded as a key
aspect into all EU security technologies.

[1]               All the figures and studies mentioned in this Action
Plan are further detailed in the Staff Working Document (SWD) accompanying this
Action Plan.

[2]               COM (2010)614 final.

[3]               COM (2009)691 final.

[4]               See the SWD.

[5]               This list is not exhaustive, a more detailed overview
on the various sectors and the technologies they encompass can be found in the
SWD.

[6]               COM (2011) 809 final.

[7]               COM (2011)311 final.

[8]               Details on the rationale and the criteria for the
selection of the targeted areas can be found in the SWD.

[9]               It should be noted that the alarm systems represent a
highly important segment, with a market size of €4.5 billion or 50% of the
physical security market.

[10]             See Regulations EC 300/2008, EC 272/2009 and EU
185/2010.

[11]             COM (2011)810 final.

[12]             COM (2011)750 and 753 final.

[13]             The adoption of these rules is however still subject to
approval by the European Council and the European Parliament.

[14]             PCP is understood here as an approach to procure
R&D services, whereby the IPR does not belong (exclusively) to the
contracting authority. See COM (2007)799 final.

[15]             COM (2010)546 final

[16]             SBIR stands for "Small Business Innovation and
Research" and is a US programme supporting innovation in SMEs using a PCP
scheme.

[17]             See the SWD.

[18]             COM(2012) 124 final

[19]             With the exception of "unsuited" areas, such
as for instance basic technology research and projects on foresight and scenarios.

[20]             For more details on privacy by design, see SWD.

[21]             COM(2012) 11

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