European Commission adopts a green paper on critical infrastructure protection

The European Commission has adopted an advisory green paper (1) on a programme for critical infrastructure protection. The document outlines the options for measures to enhance the prevention, preparedness and response to the Union’s critical infrastructure protection. The green paper provides options on how the Commission may respond to the European Council’s request to establish an ‘European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection’ (EPCIP) and a ‘Critical Infrastructure Warning Information Network’ (CIWIN) and constitutes the second phase of a consultation process that began with a Commission Communication on critical Infrastructure Protection that was adopted in October 2004.

The Green Paper addresses:

1. What should EPCIP protect against?
2. Key principles
3. The type of framework needed
4. Definition of EU Critical Infrastructure
5. National Critical Infrastructure
6. Role of Critical Infrastructure owners/operators
7. The Critical Infrastructure Warning Information Network (CIWIN)
8. Funding
9. Evaluation and monitoring

The options presented by the EPCIP Green Paper are a combination of different measures and are to be viewed as complementary to current national efforts. The Commission expects that by presenting this green paper, it will receive concrete feedback concerning the policy options outlined in this document. Depending on the outcome of the consultation process, an EPCIP policy package would be put forward during 2006.

The damage or loss of a piece of infrastructure in one European state may have negative effects on several others and on the European economy as a whole. This is becoming increasingly likely as new technologies (eg the Internet) and market liberalisation (eg in electricity and gas supply) mean that much infrastructure is part of a larger network. In such a situation protection measures are only as strong as their weakest link. This means that a common level of protection may be necessary. A common EU level framework for the protection of critical infrastructure in Europe could be put in place in order to make sure that each Member State is providing adequate and equal levels of protection concerning their critical infrastructure and that the rules of competition within the internal market are not distorted.

•Date: 25th Nov 2005 • Region: W.Europe/UK • Type: Article •Topic: Terrorism
Rate this article or make a comment - click here