The Executive Secretary participated in the International Conference on Resilient Systems (ICRS) 2023 organised jointly by Escuela de Gobierno y Tranformación Pública, the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), the Stevens Institute of Technology and the Netherlands’ 4TU Centre for Resilience Engineering (4TU.RE). This is a platform for researchers and practitioners from various world regions to share expertise in the design, analysis and governance of resilient interconnected social-technical-environment (STE) systems. 

In this context, the Executive Secretary delivered a statement in which he outlined the Council of Europe’s continued commitment to protecting the environment, as demonstrated by the outcomes of the Reykjavik Summit of the Heads of State and Government.  In particular, he emphasised the necessity for a link between the work of scientists in their respective fields of competence and policy makers. Such a gap between educational research and policy to better enable effective practice in the field of disaster risk reduction remains a challenge, and the approach developed by EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement, that combines the two pillars of intergovernmental (policy) cooperation and scientific collaboration with the EUR-OPA Network, offers opportunities for sharing experience and networking between both pillars.