The 11th EU-US-Canada Expert Meeting on Critical Infrastructure Resilience was co-organised on 1-2 June 2022 by the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME).

The event provided an opportunity for experts from EU Member States, the United States (U.S.), Canada, the European Commission, as well as EU Agencies, projects financed by the EU and other experts to exchange on pressing issues related to the security and resilience of critical infrastructures.

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine brought an additional dimension to ongoing reflections to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructures. The massive destruction of civilian infrastructures in Ukraine by acts of war, as well as sabotage and cyber-attacks that all include the risk of spill over, provide a strong reminder that such infrastructures are high-value targets for malign actors.

At the same time, other security threats and the risk of natural disasters and climate change remain a major challenge that all partners need to address. Solid and future-proof legislation, as well as multi-level cooperation were highlighted by the speakers as the necessary basis for resilient infrastructures.

The future Directive on the Resilience of Critical Entities is an example from the EU-side. It will provide minimum harmonisation on national strategies and resilience enhancing measures to be taken by critical entities, as well as enhance cooperation between EU Member States.

In order to respond to complex risks and to anticipate future challenges, research and development are essential tools for the partners on both sides of the Atlantic. Projects funded under Horizon 2020, the EU’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, provided concrete examples of tools and solutions that support the resilience of critical infrastructures and equip operators. Participants saw projects dealing with the forecasting of extreme weather, detecting and responding to security threats to rail transport, as well as enhancing cyber-physical resilience of ground segments of space infrastructure.

As there was broad agreement between the representatives of the EU, the U.S. and Canada that space is one of the sectors that will be of increasing relevance for critical infrastructures in the coming years because of its growing market, as well as the connectivity it provides to other sectors. In addition, experts discussed in more detail the role that space-based services such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) have for other critical infrastructures, notably in aviation and communication, including for emergency services.

The two days of the EU-U.S.-Canada expert meeting on critical infrastructure resilience offered not only a rich possibility to network and exchange on strategic and technical levels, but reaffirmed the continuous convergence between the partners in questions related to resilience of critical infrastructure. The current challenges and the geopolitical situation have once more underlined the benefit of cooperation in this domain.