Proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Blueprint to coordinate a Union-level response to disruptions of critical infrastructure with significant cross-border relevance

Summary:

Draft Council Recommendation - adopted by the European Commission on 6 September 2023 - introducing a Blueprint seeking to coordinate a response to disruptions of critical infrastructure with significant cross-border relevance in the European Union (EU).

Further information:

The EU relies on critical infrastructure due to the essential services provided by the entities operating it. They are crucial for the maintenance of vital societal functions, economic activities, public health and environmental safety, and they should be provided in an unobstructed manner in the internal market. Improving the resilience of critical infrastructure was been deemed essential.

Directive 2008/114/EC - also known as the ECI Directive - was the first legal instrument to establish an EU-wide procedure for identifying and designating critical infrastructure and a common approach to assess the need to improve the protection of such infrastructure. However, it only focused on the energy and transport sectors, as well as the infrastructure itself, rather than wider measures to enhance the resilience of the entities operating such infrastructure. Given the need to cover more than two sectors and go beyond protective measures of individual assets, the co-legislators adopted Directive (EU) 2022/2557 on the resilience of critical entities, also known as the CER Directive, together with Directive (EU) 2022/2555, also known as the NIS2 Directive.

Moreover, additional action was deemed necessary to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure, not only as regards preparedness but also as regards a coordinated response. An initial Council Recommendation was adopted in December 2022 to address that issue. The present draft Council Recommendation presents a Blueprint on such a coordinated response to disruptions of critical infrastructure with significant cross-border relevance. It was adopted by the European Commission on 6 September 2023.

• Primary Source

Official

European Commission: Migration and Home Affairs: Critical infrastructure resilience https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/internal-security/counter-terrorism-and-radicalisation/protection/critical-infrastructure-resilience_en

European Commission: Press Release, 06/09/2023: Critical Infrastructure: Commission proposes a Blueprint to improve response to disruptive cross-border incidents https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_4350

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