In the Recommendation, the Council invited the Commission to carry out a comprehensive study concerning the resilience of submarine communication cables and to consult relevant stakeholders and experts on appropriate measures in relation to possible significant incidents regarding submarine infrastructure.

This Recommendation aims to promote synergies at EU level with the objective of increasing the security and resilience of submarine cables infrastructures. It recommends both specific actions to assess and improve coordination between the Union and its Member States as regards the security and resilience of existing and new submarine cable infrastructures and as regards the support for the joint deployment or significant upgrade of such infrastructures via Cable Projects of European Interest (‘CPEI’). 

Submarine cable infrastructures include not only cables but also any infrastructure related to their construction, operation, maintenance and repair, such as landing stations and the terrestrial parts of the submarine cable connecting to them (e.g., land routes from beach manhole to landing station, data centre, or point of presence), repair centres, as well as the fleet of deployment, maintenance and repair vessels. 

The Commission is setting up the Submarine Cable Infrastructure informal Expert Group, in the meaning of Commission Decision C(2016) 3301 of 30 May 2016, composed of Member States’ authorities (‘the Expert Group’), to provide advice and expertise to the Commission in relation to the follow-up on this Recommendation, in particular on the following: 

• facilitating rapid and effective information exchanges between the Member States, the Commission, and the External Action Service, by maintaining a close link between matters of security and resilience of submarine cable infrastructures as well as their funding and financing; 
• mapping the existing submarine cable infrastructures at EU level, based on the national mapping exercises and keeping it up to date, at a minimum on an annual basis; 
• reviewing the mapping and national risk assessments in order to identify missing information; 
• proposing measures to complete the missing information and a methodology to consolidate the additional information with the existing assessments, establishing the baseline for a Union-wide assessment of risks, vulnerabilities and dependencies; 
• conducting the actual consolidated Union-wide assessments of risks, vulnerabilities and dependencies of submarine cable infrastructures, which should lead to proposals for mitigating measures; 
• proposing a draft list of strategic CPEIs that meet the criteria listed in this Recommendation; 
• providing a forum for working in a coordinated approach in multilateral and multistakeholder fora; 
• discussing the possibilities for uptake and deployment of innovative solutions to detect and deter threats to submarine.