Read the Full Critical Infrastructure Protection Report

Executive Summary

The EastWest Institute Consortium on Security and Technology organized a roundtable discussion on January 19th, 2006, on the topic of critical infrastructure protection in Europe. The objective of the roundtable discussion was to provide feedback on the European Commission’s recently published Green Paper on a European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection1. Over 30 public sector officials, owners and operators of critical infrastructure, and technology providers articipated in the discussion.

The discussion resulted in the following key conclusions:

• Because a voluntary approach to critical infrastructure protection might not result in increased security standards, there should be a legislative, common framework around the basic principles of EPCIP, without going beyond the principle of subsidiarity.
• EPCIP should guarantee the confidentiality of sensitive information. The best way to do this is to have the sharing of data on specific infrastructure be the responsibility of Member States.
• Another key principle should be proportionality. Protection strategies and measures should be proportionate to the level of risk involved. Protection measures should be defined on a sector by sector basis.
• Critical infrastructure operators should ensure an adequate level of security through the deployment of security plans. Member States should analyse the threat and threat levels and audit the deployment of security plans at the national level.
• The European Commission should provide an overview of the effectiveness of Member States’ policies. The Commission should have a coordinating role whenever a disruption of critical infrastructure has transnational consequences.
• Cooperation between the EU and NATO on the issue of critical infrastructure protection should be improved.
• New measures and standards adopted at the EU level should not result in barriers hampering the possible use of effective non-European technology.

PDF: 

Critical Infrastructure Protection - Report.pdf