The European Commission has put forward a proposal with a series of measures aimed at strengthening the European security industry, a market whose turnover in the EU is estimated at €30 billion in the European Union. This program will contribute to create a true internal market for EUe security industry.

The action programme proposed by the European Commission to boost Europe's security industry involves a set of measures which seek to overcome the fragmentation of European security market by promoting harmonization of standards and certification procedures. It also promotes a better exploitation of synergies between civil security and defence research.

The action programme will also support the use of certain practices such as pre-commercial procurement especially in the field of European and international public tenders. These practices allow to test and validate the results of research projects on EU security. With this approach already foreseen in the Horizon 2020 program, industry, public authorities and end users would be involved in the process. The Commission also encourages Member States to employ this approach at national level to the extent that their procurement legislations allow it.

It also proposes the introduction of controls on the social impact of new security technologies in the research phase. As a consequence, the Commission will issue a mandate to European standardisation organisations to develop a standard for the integration of privacy issues. Also, legal and economic consequences of limiting the liability of third parties will be analysed.

All the measures included in the action programme are aimed at keeping and expanding the technological advantage of the European security industry by taking advantage of favourable conditions in the internal market and by enhancing the position of the European security industry in emerging international markets. This objective will involve a very special support to innovative SMEs in their access to foreign markets.