This project aimed to shed light on policies of EU (European Union) Member States in relation to biosecurity, for evaluating of the policies that European Member States should address to mitigate proliferation risks regarding biological materials.
The consortium of European biosecurity experts set out an ambitious six months roadmap, dived into three phases.
- Phase 1: An assessment of current policies of EU Member States in relation to biosecurity and measures and systems Member States should have in place in order to comply with international instruments relevant for biosecurity articles;
- Phase 2: The development of a resource toolbox that assists Member States in advancing their national biosecurity policies and assess their measures in place to account for and secure materials that represent biological proliferation risks;
- Phase 3: Present available biosecurity resources to Member States to supply guidance in the process of biosecurity implementation of measures and systems Member States should have in place in order to comply with international biosecurity stipulations.
Goal of the project
This project aimed to provide a context of what should be set up in EU Member States in order to comply with international regulations concerning biosecurity, an overview of existing biosecurity policies and policy gaps in the EU, and a biosecurity toolbox to provide EU Member States with tangible tools and guidance on what to address, and how. This with the overall purpose to reduce accessibility to CBRN (Chemical Biological Radiology and nuclear) materials, with a special focus on biological agents that are used or are stored in laboratories.
Who were involved
This project was funded by the European Commission, Directorate General Home Affairs (Specific contract HOME/2019/ISFP/FW/CBRN/0005). The consortium executing the project was coordinated by RIVM and included ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) and ENCO (consultancy providing specialised services on nuclear power and CBRN topics to both government and industry). Additional in-kind support is provided by members of the European Biosecurity Regulatory Forum (EBRF).
Products
In phase 2 of the project, a biosecurity resource toolbox was developed that assists Member States in advancing their national biosecurity policies and assess their measures in place to account for and secure materials that represent biological proliferation risks. The Biosecurity Resource Toolbox contains 60 resources, of which 27 are related to Biosecurity only, 23 to Biosecurity in combination with Biosafety, and 10 that are related to aspects of dual use. The type of resources available in the toolbox include interactive tools to mitigate insider threats at strategic and sensitive industries, checklists for the identification of vulnerabilities for strategic industries that house CBRN and dual use items, and documents related to legislation, guidelines, and best practices concerning biosecurity.
A comparison of relevant international biosecurity legally binding and non-legally binding instruments was made. The complementarity of these biosecurity instruments has been described in an article: Vennis IM, Boskovic M, Bleijs DA and Rutjes SA (2022) Complementarity of International Instruments in the Field of Biosecurity. Front. Public Health 10:894389.
Highlights
- Establishment of an inventory of point of contact / agencies responsible for biosecurity within EU Member States.
- Distribution of a questionnaire to the points of contact with the aim to create an overview of current policies of the EU Member States in relation to biosecurity.
- A comparison of relevant international biosecurity legally binding and non-legally binding instruments has been made. The complementarity of these biosecurity instruments has been described in an article: Vennis IM, Boskovic M, Bleijs DA and Rutjes SA (2022) Complementarity of International Instruments in the Field of Biosecurity. Front. Public Health 10:894389.
- Development of a matrix of available biosecurity resources and their applicability for the European situation.
- Development of a biosecurity resource toolbox that assists Member States in advancing their national biosecurity policies and assess their measures in place to account for and secure materials that represent biological proliferation risks.
- A workshop informing the EU, European Agencies and Member States on the outcome of the project.
- A final report “Brief on the preparation of a biosecurity toolbox to strengthen European biosecurity” for the European Commission.
RIVM role
RIVM coordinated the project and was involved in all three stages of the project. RIVM contributed to establishing an inventory of point of contacts/agencies and contributed to drafting, distributing, and analysing the questionnaire about current biosecurity policies of the EU member states. RIVM developed a matrix of available biosecurity resources and the biosecurity resource toolbox. RIVM coordinated the final report and workshop. Together with ENCO, RIVM has published the article Complementarity of International Instruments in the Field of Biosecurity (Vennis et al, 2022).