In the summer of 2010, IB Consultancy was commissioned by the European Commission DG Home (the then DG Justice, Liberty and Security) to support in defining lists of CBRNe agents. The work done by IB Consultancy contributed to the implementation of the EU CBRN Action Plan by the EU and its member states.
The main goal of the EU CBRN Action Plan is to minimise the threat and damage to the public from CBRNe incidents. The ways to achieve this vary: a risk-based approach to security, effective protection of CBRNe materials, improved exchange of security-related information between member states, further development of detection systems in the EU, and – finally – providing the necessary tools to manage CBRNe incidents. The first step in the Action Plan is to define lists for the different categories of CBRNe agents.
IB Consultancy was tasked by the European Commission to deliver three reports (Chemical, Biological and Radiological/Nuclear). These reports will propose a methodology for drafting a list of agents, including the characteristics that are deemed necessary for a proper ranking and selection of agents.
IB Consultancy developed a ranking scheme based on a thorough threat analysis to calculate and list the threat of the agents. This tool is a basic framework that allows individual member states and IB Consultancy to add more detailed information if so required. New agents, criteria, and modifications to the weighing factors of the various criteria in the formula may be readily entered. Because this tool allows changes and extensions it will serve a useful instrument to define threat agents within the European Union for the next years.
The projects started in July 2010 and will run until October 2010.