20th-22nd OCTOBER 2026
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Catherine Piana

Catherine Piana

  • Director General
  • CoESS Confederation of European Security Services, Belgium

    Catherine Piana is the spokesperson of the private security industry to the EU and international institutions and stakeholders (CoESS since 2014, ASSA-I – Aviation Security Services Association since 2016). She covers a wide range of subjects, including Transport Security (Maritime, Air and Land), AI, Insider Threat, the protection of Critical Infrastructure and Public Spaces. In 2024, she has written several Papers on Public-Private Partnerships, both from the angle of Critical Infrastructure and spaces accessible to the public. Catherine is the Chairperson of the European Committee for Standardisation’s (CEN) TC 439 “Private Security Services”.

    She is also the Managing Director of Help2Protect (e-learning platform on the Insider Threat), a spin-off of the EU-funded project AITRAP.

    A European Public Affairs Consultant by profession, Catherine has been in a leadership position in several trade associations since 1997. A Belgian national, she speaks 6 languages (EN, FR, IT, ES, NL, DE).

    Sessions

    • CoESS Workshop

      Moderator

      Europe has entered a new era of preparedness. As the threat environment becomes more complex, the challenge is no longer simply whether Europe has the capabilities to protect its critical infrastructure, but whether those capabilities can be effectively organised and mobilised when they are needed most. This session will explore what we call the Preparedness Gap: the gap between the capabilities and experience that already exist across society and those that are effectively recognised, connected and integrated into preparedness planning before a crisis occurs.

      Private security provides a compelling illustration. Every day, private security professionals protect critical infrastructure and essential services, monitor sensitive sites, assess and respond to incidents, support business continuity and contribute to situational awareness. Yet these capabilities are not always systematically embedded in emergency planning, information-sharing arrangements, joint exercises and crisis governance. How can Europe move from ad hoc cooperation during crises towards Preparedness by Design, where roles, relationships and operational interfaces are established beforehand?

      Co-hosted by the Confederation of European Security Services (CoESS), the session will bring together European policymakers, corporate security leaders and private security practitioners to examine how existing capabilities can be better recognised, integrated and governed as part of Europe’s preparedness architecture.

      Hans Das, Deputy Director-General and Chief Operations Officer at DG ECHO, European Commission, will open the session with a keynote, followed by Marc Léoutre, Deputy Head of Unit at DG HOME D2. The panel discussion will bring together Jean-Philippe Bérillon, Chairman of the CoESS Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee and Member of the CoESS Board of Directors; Yvan De Mesmaeker, Secretary General of the European Corporate Security Association (ECSA); and Karolien Verbeiren, Country President of Securitas Belgium NV.

      Together, they will consider a central question: how do we ensure that the capabilities Europe already possesses become part of preparedness before, not during, the next crisis? The session will be moderated by Catherine Piana, Director General of CoESS.”

    • From Definition to Delivery: Governance, Methodology, and Practical Implementation of NIS2 and CER

      Private Security Impact on Implementation of NIS2 and CER

      This session explores how the translation of policy into practice has developed under NIS2 and CER. There still appears to be a lack of understanding around who is responsible for identifying critical infrastructures in a transnational setting, who is responsible for its security and resilience and which actors are required to report incidents, particularly under the evolving NIS-2 and the CER Directive regimes. We will examine governance models, definitions, and practical methodologies for risk assessment, compliance, and reporting.