{"id":1977,"date":"2026-09-09T11:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2026-09-09T11:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T11:45:25","slug":"csaba-borboly-the-security-of-rural-mountain-and-minority-communities-must-be-visible-in-europes-new-counter-terrorism-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/csaba-borboly-the-security-of-rural-mountain-and-minority-communities-must-be-visible-in-europes-new-counter-terrorism-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Csaba Borboly: The security of rural, mountain and minority communities must be visible in Europe\u2019s new counter-terrorism strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maastricht \/ Miercurea Ciuc \u2013<\/strong> On Wednesday, 9 September, the CIVEX Commission of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) discussed the draft opinion on \u201cProtectEU: A European Agenda to Prevent and Counter Terrorism\u201d. The European Commission\u2019s new agenda seeks to define how the European Union protects its citizens from terrorism, radicalisation and hybrid threats, including foreign information manipulation, disinformation and cyberattacks.<\/p>\n

Csaba Borboly, an EPP member of the CoR and Vice-President of Harghita County Council, argued during the debate and through his tabled amendments that European security policy will be credible only if it does not focus exclusively on large cities and national capitals but also reflects the specific circumstances of rural, mountain, border and minority communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity does not look the same in every territory\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cSecurity risks manifest themselves differently in a large city district and in a small locality in a mountain or border area. Disinformation, radicalisation attempts, online influence and cyber threats also reach smaller communities, but these communities have far fewer specialists, smaller administrative structures and more limited resources with which to respond. Europe must finally recognise this reality,\u201d said Csaba Borboly.<\/p>\n

Three concrete priorities proposed for the report<\/h2>\n

The amendments tabled by Csaba Borboly strengthen the following priorities in the CIVEX draft opinion:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Place-based security assessments.<\/strong> Future European measures must be informed by assessments that reflect the specific vulnerabilities of less-developed, rural, mountain and minority-populated regions. The same yardstick cannot be applied to a district in a large city and to a small locality.<\/li>\n
  2. Information adapted to local realities and languages.<\/strong> Public awareness campaigns must strengthen media literacy and resilience to disinformation. They must also be adapted to local social and linguistic realities and, where relevant, provide appropriate language support. For Hungarian-speaking communities, this also means access to information in their mother tongue.<\/li>\n
  3. Simple access to funding, supported by capacity-building measures.<\/strong> Security funding under the next multiannual financial framework must be accessible through simplified and proportionate procedures, accompanied by technical assistance and administrative capacity-building. This is particularly important for smaller administrations and for less-developed, rural, mountain and border regions. Small municipalities must also be able to use these instruments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Why does this matter for local communities?<\/h2>\n

    \u201cThrough education, social services, youth policy, cultural life and local security, local and regional authorities are in direct contact with the realities of our communities every day. We are the first to notice when a young person begins to drift away, when hate speech emerges in a community or when a false narrative spreads on social media. That is why European counter-terrorism policy works when it builds on our knowledge and experience, not when decisions are taken over our heads,\u201d Csaba Borboly stated.<\/p>\n

    Why do I work in Brussels?<\/h2>\n

    \u201cI represent Harghita County and European regions facing similar circumstances in the European Committee of the Regions precisely so that these considerations are reflected in European decisions. If a European strategy is designed solely from the perspective of capitals and large cities, our communities will be left behind, both in terms of protection and access to funding. My role is to make sure that this does not happen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

    Background<\/h2>\n

    The rapporteur for the CoR opinion on the ProtectEU agenda is Olgierd Geblewicz (PL\/EPP), President of the West Pomerania Region. The CIVEX Commission discussed the draft opinion and the tabled amendments at its meeting on 9 September.<\/p>\n

    The opinion is expected to be submitted for debate at a plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions. Once adopted, it will become the official position of the CoR and serve as a reference in the EU legislative process for the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    At a meeting of the CIVEX Commission of the European Committee of the Regions, Csaba Borboly, Vice-President of Harghita County Council, worked to ensure that the ProtectEU report reflects local realities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hirek","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1979,"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions\/1979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cor.borbolycsaba.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}