The EU and NATO share a common interest in preventing disruptions to critical infrastructure that provides essential services to citizens and supports their economies.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has, says the EU and NATO, brought “new risks, physical and cyber-attacks, often combined as a hybrid threat.”
The EU and NATO have now announced they will step up their cooperation with the launch of the EU-NATO Task Force on resilience of critical infrastructure.
The EU-NATO Task Force has now presented a report which maps out the current security challenges and identifies four key sectors of cross-cutting importance: energy, transport, digital infrastructure and space.
The EU and NATO experts have identified several key recommendations to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure.
President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Our critical infrastructure faces increasingly complex security threats. We need to step up our efforts to ensure its resilience.
“This is crucial to protect essential services for citizens and support our economies. I’m glad that with Secretary General Stoltenberg we launched an EU-NATO Task Force and today I’m proud that we are presenting the outcome of its work. The Task Force has identified key security challenges in the areas of energy, transport, digital infrastructure and space, and proposes targeted recommendations. We will follow up and continue working together”.
High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell added,: ”Disruption of critical infrastructure can have massive consequences for our economies, our societies, the security of our citizens, potentially causing disruptions for the military.”
“We must ensure that strengthening resilience of critical infrastructure is an integral part of both civilian and military work. So it is only natural that it is a key part of EU-NATO cooperation. The report prepared by our Task Force provides a solid basis to work together, combining our respective strengths and tools for the benefit of Europe’s and our partners’ security.”
More comment came from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg who said: “I thank President von der Leyen for her leadership, and the European Commission and the European External Action Service for their support as part of the NATO-EU Task Force on the resilience of critical infrastructure.
“This is an excellent example of our cooperation in action. The Task Force’s Report sets out the importance of resilience in energy, transport, digital infrastructure, and space, and makes a number of key recommendations to deepen NATO-EU cooperation even more.”
EU and NATO say their staff will take forward the recommendations of this report on the basis of long-standing cooperation and in full respect of the agreed guiding principles enshrined in the three Joint Declarations on EU-NATO cooperation.
