Crisis management in Europe: What role for the EU and the Swedish presidency 2009?

What should the European Union’s role be in managing future crises and disasters? What will the Swedish Presidency’s priorities be in this area? These questions and a range of other central issues concerning the development of European crisis management will be explored at the conference “Crisis Management in Europe: What role for the EU and the Swedish Presidency 2009?”

This conference is a collaboration between the Swedish National Defence College (SNDC) and the newly formed Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). By tapping into research carried out jointly by the European Union Crisis Management (EUCM) programme at SNDC, the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and Louisiana State University, MSB is proud to carry on the tradition of nurturing cutting-edge research that aims to improve the practice of crisis and disaster management in Sweden and beyond.

The goal of this conference is to bring together practitioners and academics with an active interest in studying and developing the EU’s capacity to deal with transboundary threats, crises and disasters. Participants will be asked to focus on timely and tangible issues in an interactive setting, such as the development of the EU’s early warning capacity, the challenges of achieving collective action in the area of security and crisis management, and the implications of future institutional changes. The opinions and insights derived from these discussions will be passed on to the Swedish and European policymakers who are in charge of creating a safer and more secure Europe.