RAN LOCAL Working Group meeting - The future and position of local P/CVE strategies and approaches, Budapest 08-09 June 2023

As the extremist landscape in Europe is changing rapidly and factors for radicalisation have diversified, practitioners from different European countries came together to discuss the changing landscape and potential options for repositioning local strategies for preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). The overall objective of the meeting was to establish an outline of the changes in the landscape, identify the challenges and offer potential recommendations for adaptation.

The key outcomes were the following:

• The main changes in the extremist landscape are the intensification of polarisation in public discourse, rising online hate crimes, anti-democratic attitudes, the spread of false and hostile messages eroding trust in institutions, and the polarising attitudes towards marginalised groups.
• The main challenges identified by participants are: The local authorities’ narrow mandate often limits their focus to specific extremist ideologies, securing funding for primary prevention measures that address root causes of radicalisation, and the lack of (political and social) acknowledgement regarding the significance of polarisation and discrimination in P/CVE.
• The future local P/CVE strategy needs to adopt a comprehensive and inclusive approach involving various non-security stakeholders and including ‘common message’ communication strategies, emotional awareness of grievances and clear legislation.