UIC as an official partner of Pol-Primett II participated in the 6th Expert User Group Meeting on 15 July in Berlin, hosted by DB Corporate Security – also Chair of the UIC Metal Theft Workgroup.

During this 6th Expert User Group meeting, a large part of the discussions revolved around the economic impact of metal theft and all its dynamic interfaces. Contributing to this discussion were the main actors within the “metal theft chain of events”, with particular attention to the transport, energy and telecommunications sectors, as well as significant input by the law enforcement authorities and metal traders.

That, in fact, contributes to the current discussions on how to assess the current impact of EU metal theft, be it in terms of economics, finance, grid network operations and performance or even reputation damage.

One of many current assumptions is that metal theft events are decreasing (over all sectors generally), but in particular areas (such as railway networks), the damages are of more importance (financial and performance).

All agreed that there is a need for that to be understood; as well as that the current preventive and protective measures in place are producing a positive output in reducing the crime but there is a need to keep them in place and even reinforce the preventive policy on the fight against metal theft.

The Pol-PRIMETT II – 6th Expert User Group meeting was followed by the 3rd workshop on metal theft entrusted by EC DG MOVE to UIC, also in Berlin on 16 July at the DB Situation Centre and Global Crisis Management.

The final report will be presented on 6 October 2015 in Brussels during the “Conference on Incident Reporting in Land Transport Security at the EU Level” organised by DG MOVE.