Launch of the self-governed PSCE Forum in June 2009
 
     

On 19 June 2009, a major step was achieved for the establishment of PSCE as an International association under the Belgium law. In order to support the establishment of PSCE as a legal entity, EADS and Motorola have accepted to be the founding members. Following the signature of the statutes at the notary office, the Royal Decree is due to be published in the Official Belgian journal (Moniteur Belge) and will officially transform the PSCE Forum into a legal entity.

The NARTUS project officially ended on 31 May 2009 after a successful PSCE Forum Conference in Prague, Czech Republic on 21-22 May 2009. Reports of the event are available here. The final review of the NARTUS project is planned for end of September 2009. 

 
What is the NARTUS project?

The FP6 SSA NARTUS project established a European platform and roadmap for future public safety communication, in order to facilitate European integration in the area of Public Safety with particular focus on public safety communications and information systems. Recent events in Europe and other parts of the world have demonstrated that effective response to emergencies, crises and disasters depends on timely available, reliable and intelligible information. Advanced information and communications technologies (ICT’s) offer an increasing number of valuable, however divergent, tools for emergency response, crisis management, and disaster preparedness and response. The speed with which ICT’s emerge, leads to different levels of implementation. Successful application of ICT’s by the increasing number of national and international stakeholders confronted with cross-border incidents, depends on better integration of frameworks for action.

The European Public Safety Communication Forum (PSCE Forum) was launched in July 2007 and held during the following three years several conferences, networking events and workshops in Europe. Most events were associated with the EU presidency (Finland, Slovenia, France, Czech Republic). 

During this launching process, the NARTUS project proposes a number of topics for discussion (established later as initiatives and working groups) and drafted proposals for the future technology roadmap based on a collection of generic user  requirements and operational scenarios.