Urban security is an important pillar of the European citizens’ daily lives. Terrorist threats in major European cities have been a source of concern in recent years, and the recent emergence of the COVID epidemic has added to the list of urban security concerns. In recent years, the EU has established a number of focused initiatives to address urban security concerns. Furthermore, the necessity for European rules to address the negative privacy repercussions of emerging surveillance technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) or the deployment of drones has become an issue of strong political discussion at the European level.

As part of the implementation of Action 2, the Partnership on Security in Public Spaces published a guidebook introducing local and regional urban policy makers to a wide range of EU funding opportunities in the field of security in public spaces. The document, “EU financing for urban security projects in 2021 - 2027: Guidebook for local practitioners”, complements a training module in the form of a PPT and relevant methodological indications. The first part provides basic, practical information on the most relevant funding opportunities and the second part introduces several lessons learned from previous projects.