National Security Strategies and Critical Infrastructure: An Analysis of the European Union Member States

"The national security strategies of the European Union Member States emphasise the role of critical infrastructure in providing essential services to society and the necessity to protect them in the context of national security and defence. Thus, the protection of critical infrastructure lies not only with the critical infrastructure operator or administrator, but also with governmental institutions. Threats to critical infrastructure are actually threats to national security. An unwanted event involving one or more critical infrastructures involves the intervention of local, regional and national structures. The EU Member States are aware that threats to critical infrastructure pose serious threats to national security and even to the EU’s security and defence. In this regard, the EU Member States have included in their national security strategies a number of critical infrastructure issues, such as their importance, necessity, development, functionality, efficiency and last but not least their protection and resilience to all types of threats. This study highlights the inclusion of critical infrastructure in the security strategies of the EU Member States and the involvement of states in ensuring and strengthening the appropriate protection of national and European critical infrastructures."