The External Dimension of the European Union's Critical Infrastructure Protection Programme

From Neighbouring Frameworks to Transatlantic Cooperation

Alessandro Lazari, Robert Mikac, Alessandro Lazari, Robert Mikac

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000570656
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Terrorismus

External Dimension of the European Union's Critical Infrastructure Protection Programme: From Neighboring Frameworks to Transatlantic Cooperation provides the basis, methodological framework, and first comprehensive analysis of the current state of the external dimension European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection.

The challenges at the EU level are multidimension insofar as identifying, designating and protecting critical infrastructures with the ultimate goal of harmonizing different national policies of the Member States and creating the identity of the European Union in this arena. Modern society has become so reliant on various sectors of critical infrastructure—energy, telecommunications, transport, finance, ICT, and public services—that any disruption may lead to serious failures that impact individuals, society, and the economy. The importance of critical infrastructures grows with the industrial development of global and national communities; their interdependence and resiliency is increasingly important given security threats including terrorism, natural disaster, climate change and pandemic outbreak

In the area of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience, the European Union is constantly committed to setting the objectives for the Member States. At the same time, the European Commission promotes the importance of a common approach to Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), and ensure cooperation beyond the borders of the Union, while also cooperating with neighboring countries, including those soon willing to join the European Union.

This book has been structured and written to contribute to current critical infrastructures, resilience policy development and discussions about regional and international cooperation. It serves as a reference for those countries willing to initiate cooperation and that therefore demand deeper knowledge on the security cultures and frameworks of their potential partners.

Features:

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• Provides an unprecedented analysis of the national frameworks of 14 neighboring countries of the EU, plus the United States and Canada

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• Overcomes the language barriers to provide an overall picture of the state of play of the countries considered

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• Outlines the shaping of national critical infrastructure protection frameworks to understanding the importance of service stability and continuity

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• Presents guidelines to building a comprehensive and flexible normative framework

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• Addresses the strategic and operational importance of international co-operation on critical infrastructure including efforts in CIP education and training

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• Provides insight to institutions and decision-makers on existing policies and ways to improve the European security agenda

The book explains and advocates for establishing stronger, more resilient systems to preserve functionalities at the local, national, and international levels. Security, industry, and policy experts—both practitioners and policy decision-makers—looking for answers will find the solutions they seek within this book.

1 INTRODUCTION

DOI: 10.4324/9781003273769-1

• Introduction and methodology
• The External Dimension of the European Union’s Critical Infrastructure Protection: From Neighboring Policy to Transatlantic Cooperation
• Republic of Croatia: Terms of Reference for Neighboring Countries

Chapter 1Introduction and Methodology

Alessandro Lazari and Robert Mikac

DOI: 10.4324/9781003273769-2

Contents

• 1.1. Research Background
• 1.2. Subject of Research Interest
• 1.3. Research Focus
• 1.4. Methodological Framework
• 1.5. The Book Structure

1.1. Research Background

The subject of CIPR – which in the narrative of this book will be often substituted by the acronym CIP or CIPR – has become important and prominent, especially after all security challenges and changes to the threat scenarios that took place in the first decade of the new millennium, including terrorist attacks (U.S.A. September the 11th, 2001, Spain March the 11th, 2004, U.K. July the 7th, 2005), an increasing number of natural disasters, the global financial crisis in 2008 and the Stuxnet malware which affected the Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz between 2009 and 2010. In addition, with the growing economic and social development, the focus of communities, especially in the context of industrial installations and metropolitan areas, is increasingly directed on maintaining a high level of security in order to preserve functionalities at the local, national and international levels. The field of critical infrastructure, and thus their protection and resilience, has become an attractive and challenging field for research in the last 15 years due to the multi-faceted aspects of this field: technical, social, legal, and natural sciences. The emergence of new security threats, and the need for a safer society, is on everyone’s agenda nowadays and many experts, practitioners, and decision-makers are constantly looking for answers and potential directions to achieve an adequate level of security.

It is a fact that each country in the world depends on critical infrastructure, whether or not they have their own definition of critical infrastructure; established a regulatory national framework; a system for the monitoring of key national risks and processes; a public-private partnership with operators of critical infrastructures and international platform for cooperation. Every country, irrespective of the degree of political, economic, social, technological, normative development, possesses facilities, assets, networks, and systems that are pivotal for the orderly life of modern society, law enforcement and first responders engaged on the issues of public security and safety, up to the defense of the governance of the state.

The importance of various critical infrastructure components grows with the industrial development of global and national communities and depends on the undisturbed functioning of critical infrastructure, both inland and on the territories of other (usually neighboring) countries. The contemporary world has become highly dependent on certain types of critical infrastructure, such as those in energy (e.g. electricity, oil, and gas), telecommunications, transport (e.g. railways, roads, inland waterways, seaborne), banking, and finance sectors. Every disruption in these areas leads to serious malfunctions and difficulties which affect citizens, economies, and states’ governance capabilities.

By definition, “critical infrastructure” represents systems, networks and objects of national importance whose discontinuation of operation or interruption in the delivery of goods or services can have major consequences on national security, health and the lives of people, property and the environment, security and economic stability and continuous functioning of the government. Critical infrastructure can be defined on multiple levels, but in all definitions, essential elements are the same as in the definition given here. Although it is possible to designate critical infrastructure at many different levels, it is evident from the initial definition that our focus is on infrastructure of national importance, and that will be the primary focus throughout the book. We respect all other approaches and needs, but this research will primarily address issues of critical infrastructure on the state level that are of national importance, while all other reviews will be used secondarily to complete the central interest of the research.

Then, it is important to mention, how in the case of states, there are well-known examples of individual countries that are economically more powerful and territorially larger, and designate critical infrastructure at local, regional and state levels, while smaller and lesser developed countries designate critical infrastructure only at the state level. It is equally important to point out how, critical infrastructure is owned and designated by private corporations and companies, and in the Western world, approximately 85% of national critical infrastructure is privately owned. Therefore, at the beginning of any serious consideration of critical infrastructure issues, public-private partnerships should be perceived and used as an essential model for collaboration and improvement of all processes and functions.

Following the operational definition of critical infrastructure in the preceding paragraph (which will be used throughout the study and analysis in this book), it is important to mention the concept of strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure. This concept is often forgotten or left out, and mostly the discussion is directed immediately to the area of critical infrastructure protection. However, the concept of strengthening resilience may – but also doesn’t have to be – an integral part of the process of critical infrastructure protection. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize at the outset, what we mean when we refer to strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure, and, likewise, what we refer to when we use the term “critical infrastructure protection”. Strengthening resilience means the use of all prevention measures that must be taken at the design, investment and construction stages – considering all the possible risks and threats. In the exploitation phase, it means the existence of knowledge and ability to manage important processes for the proper functioning of the infrastructure (such as the use of international industrial management standards, own alternative sources of power in the event of a short interruption of external energy supply, diversified key input and output functions and needs, etc.). And finally, cooperation and connection with all relevant external entities and systems that are important for the infrastructure in question to function continuously – to have the necessary inflow resources and raw materials, cooperation with the civil protection system, law enforcement agencies, etc.

On the other side, critical infrastructure protection means:

• 1) All activities are undertaken primarily by the critical infrastructure owner or manager to prevent internal and external challenges from harming the continuous functioning of the infrastructures.
• 2) Measures and actions were taken by the state to:
  • establish a normative framework.
  • ensure the development of this area.
  • develop systems for strengthening resilience and protection of key processes and infrastructures in its territory.
  • establish clear competencies and relationships between different stakeholders (system coordinator, competent ministries, security coordinators, regulatory agencies, facilities, networks, and systems that are critical infrastructure).
  • develop public-private partnerships and collaborations within the international community and the organizations to which it belongs or whose membership it seeks.

Here, we clearly see the duality of critical infrastructure protection where both components are extremely important as they ensure the integrity of the process. In this research, we will respect one and the other part, while we will primarily refer, research and describe the part that relates to states – for the simple fact that they are the ones who provide a platform for development and security within the national territory. They also represent the “senior partner” – and often provide regulatory oversight – in the relationship with the owners or managers of critical infrastructures.

An important part of the whole discussion on critical infrastructure is public-private partnership. It has already been mentioned that in the Western world, approximately 85% of national critical infrastructure is privately owned. Therefore, effective strengthening of resilience and critical infrastructure protection, both is a responsibility of the public and private sectors and requires close cooperation between public authorities and the business community. The objective of public-private-sector collaboration in the area of critical infrastructure is to improve investment in infrastructure projects or other activities by providing public risk-sharing services and pooling private sector expertise or additional sources of capital. In this regard, we consider public-private partnerships as an effective way of implementing commitments that ensure the achievement of public policy objectives by linking various forms of both public and private resources and mutual interests.

This book is thematically focused on three key and interconnected segments: first, critical infrastructure as a subject of particular interest for the development of each country and international organization; second, the activities of states which have authority and responsibility within the national territory to regulate (the best they can), the area of strengthening resilience and critical infrastructure protection; third, cooperation between states and the European Union in the field of critical infrastructure by observing it through several different prisms of relations.

1.2. Subject of Research Interest

The challenges in critical infrastructure resilience and protection are numerous. For countries that are just beginning to form the concept of critical infrastructure protection, challenges are manifested in understanding the importance of the aforementioned, building a normative framework, identifying, designating the sectoral and individual critical infrastructure, and establishing the protection measures which are quality and price acceptable, yet appropriate. Then, during the process of designating critical infrastructure, the factors of criticality are extremely important – in terms of national importance and value, such that within critical infrastructure conceptualization there is no critical infrastructure that is not really critical, which can result in the congestion of the process at the very beginning. The next challenge is the relationship between critical infrastructures and their interdependence and criticality, as well as the dependence on the functioning of critical infrastructure on the ground of other states. An additional challenge arises because of the limited institutional capacities and knowledge available for this activity, which greatly complicates a comprehensive approach to critical infrastructure protection and strengthening of resilience. In the context of critical infrastructure protection, internal and external threats pose a special and unique challenge.

Challenges at the European Union level in the process of identifying, defining, and protecting critical infrastructure are multidimensional because it is necessary to harmonize different national policies of Member States and to find and create the identity of the European Union in this area. While some countries such as Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands became advanced in the development of national policies for critical infrastructure protection, the European Union is still searching for its “place and role” in the scope of public policy. The European Commission seeks to pr...