The Steering Committee of the UIC Security Platform met in Berlin on 5 March 2012.

The meeting served as an opportunity to make some important decisions and confirmations:

• The partnership with the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children is being established, with the aim of giving railway staff a means of ensuring the most appropriate response in the case of unaccompanied minors being detected aboard trains operating in the Schengen Area and thus not subject to border controls
• The document prepared by the Human Factors working group under the chairmanship of Yuri Mironov (RZD) will be finalised in the shape of a UIC leaflet restricted to members
• The Coordinating council on Transsiberian Transportation has agreed to become involved in the work of the Security Platform. Representatives will participate in the “security of international freight corridors” working group chaired by Miroslav Sokol (PKP PLK) in order to extend its geographical representation to Central Asia
• The working group on metal theft will hold its first meeting in Paris on 20 March 2012, under the chairmanship of Christian Fortier (SNCF) and the vice-chairmanship of Miroslav Zeman (ZSR)
• A PROTECTRAIL workshop with the “Stakeholders’ Advisory and Validation Group (SA&VG)” took place on 6 March in Berlin
• A RESTRAIL information day will be held on 13 June at UIC in Paris
• The European project “SECRET” aiming to combat electromagnetic attacks is scheduled to kick off on 1 April 2012 for a period of three years
• A session will be dedicated to security during the 2012 High Speed Congress in Philadelphia from 10 – 13 July 2012
• A similar session will be held at the 3rd Global Rail Freight Conference to be held in Rabat from 17 – 19 October 2012

At European level, a discussion of the issues arising from the presentation delivered by Mr Ivan Sorensen from DG MOVE helped to identify the main focal areas for 2012, namely terminology, cyber crime, partnerships with transport working groups, etc.

The next Steering Committee will be held at UIC Headquarters in Paris on 12 June 2012 and will be chiefly devoted to the preparation of the World Security Congress scheduled to take place in Bratislava from 24 – 26 October 2012.