Risks and Security

For more than two centuries, Europe has been confronted with natural catastrophes and industrial risks, with its reactions to these events evolving over time: fatalism of humans in the fact of their destiny, Enlightenment humanism, the scientistic certainties of the nineteenth century, and lastly doubt arising from the emergence of the principle of precaution, the goal of zero risk, and the great number of second assessments.

If the Europe of flows was built quite quickly, the Europe of common reflection and comparable legislation regarding risk and security still remains incomplete in the face of broad cultural diversity. A tendency toward convergence, however, has seemingly been taking shape over the last few decades.