Analysis of the Dutch Crisis Response System in the Context of the Common European Union Resilience

Abstract

The increasing integrity of the European Union member states is more and more regarding the security and civil protection aspects. On the other hand the priority in responsibility for the safety and security is still in the domain of the sovereign states. It means that the individual states of the EU are responsible for designing and managing their own security and civil protection systems. However, the integration processes within the EU trigger a significant need for an increase of common understanding of the individual member states’ philosophies, approaches and systems utilized in the domain of security and civil protection. Only then if we understand how the others work, we are able to assist them in a crisis or disaster. Therefore, it is highly important to share and understand each other’s systems between member states. The article presents the Dutch approach to national risk assessment as well as organizational aspects of internal security system applied in the Netherlands. It also suggest the future challenges which are at the near horizon of the system development.