Promoting quality through standards: Adoption of sector-specific Standards in Maritime and Aviation Security
CoESS has been involved since many years in the development of European Standards within the CEN, the official European Standards Body. In the last 6 years, further to setting up of a dedicated Technical Committee for Private Security Services, CEN TC 439, chaired by CoESS Director General Catherine Piana, experts have been working on building a full standard system for Private Security Companies protecting Critical Infrastructure, EN 17483.
The first standard of the System looked at the General Requirements (EN 17483-1:2021), and in October 2023, two subsequent sector-specific standards were adopted: EN 17483-2 on Aviation Security and EN 17483-3 on Maritime and Port Security.
Currently, the working group, convened by Dirk Bürhaus on behalf of the German Association BDSW, is looking into the next sector-specific standard, the future 17483-4, on “Energy Production and Transmission”. This sector is particularly targeted by hostile criminal organisations and Nation States and requires protection that meets specific quality requirements and dedicated training.
With the Aviation and Maritime/Port Security Standards adopted, we hope that companies will get certified and CoESS will make a campaign to buyers of such services, so that they look for compliant companies as providers.
Standards are an important tool in order to achieve quality based on objective criteria.