Crisis Management and Societal Resilience – How Local Governments Implement New Legal Obligations

13 August 2026 · Webinar 3 of the “Together We Build Societal Resilience” series · “Crisis Management and Societal Resilience – How Local Governments Implement New Legal Obligations”

On 13 August 2026, the International Centre for Civil and Societal Security (ICCSS) hosted the third webinar in its “Together We Build Societal Resilience” series, focusing on new crisis management regulations, local-level planning integration, and municipal cyber resilience. The event brought together numerous local government officials, national administration representatives, and security experts from across Poland.

Zbigniew Muszyński

Zbigniew Muszyński (Director of the Government Centre for Security — RCB) detailed the upcoming changes in crisis management planning at municipal, district, and regional levels. He outlined the new duties and funding rules for Regional and Municipal Crisis Management Centres, alongside the mechanisms for their direct cooperation with RCB. He emphasized the critical need to align crisis management plans with the ongoing implementation of the new Act on Civil Protection and Civil Defence.

Mirosław Maj

Mirosław Maj (President of the Safe Cyberspace Foundation) addressed a vital question for municipalities: when does a cybersecurity incident escalate into a crisis situation? Using a hypothetical scenario of an attack on municipal utility infrastructure, he demonstrated how a cyberattack on water supplies, offices, or local alerting networks triggers parallel tracks — KSC/NIS2 compliance (reporting to the relevant CSIRT) on one hand, and traditional crisis management procedures on the other. He illustrated how to integrate duties from three distinct acts (Crisis Management, Civil Protection, and Cybersecurity) into a single, cohesive action plan, preventing duplicated efforts within municipal administrations.

Amb. Krzysztof Paturej

Amb. Krzysztof Paturej (Chairman, ICCSS) officially launched the pilot program for the STRAŻNIK System — an interactive risk assessment tool developed by ICCSS for municipalities. The STRAŻNIK system consolidates the scattered responsibilities of local governments arising from 9 national acts and 3 international frameworks (including NATO, EU, and UN guidelines) into a single self-assessment questionnaire that takes only 30 minutes to complete. The tool diagnoses legal and organizational gaps without creating public municipality rankings, providing the local government with a tailored report, action priorities, and custom exercise scenarios.

The call for applications for the free STRAŻNIK pilot program officially opened immediately following the webinar. Applications specifying the municipality name and contact person are accepted via email at k.paturej@iccss.network until 31 August 2026. The official launch of the pilot and the announcement of the first group of participating municipalities will take place during the 1st International Resilience Leaders Forum (IRLF) on 10 September in Kielce.

Final preparatory webinar: Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC)

The fourth and final preparatory webinar before the Resilience Leaders Forum will take place on 27 August 2026 at 10:00.

• Topic: Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) in civil protection, civil defence and societal resilience — what local government can get from the military and what the military expects in return
• Speakers: Robert Klonowski (Deputy Director of Department, MSWiA) will discuss the procedures for requesting military support; Col. Andrzej Soboń (Dean of the National Security Faculty at the War Studies University) will cover Host Nation Support (HNS) obligations and the transition of civil protection into civil defence; and a representative of the Main Board of the Polish Red Cross (PCK) will explain the role of humanitarian organizations as a bridge between the military and local administration
• Registration: www.irlf.eu

Participation in the webinars and the upcoming Forum is free of charge. The programme, participation criteria, and registration forms are available on the official project website: www.irlf.eu