Scope and objective of the Critical Infrastructure Blueprint

In order to ensure a targeted, proportionate and effective approach, the Blueprint, provides a roadmap with measures that can be applied when Member States are faced with significant critical infrastructure incidents.

The Blueprint aims to achieve three main objectives in response to a significant critical infrastructure incident:

1. Improve shared situational awareness, by better understanding the significant critical infrastructure incident in the Member States, its origin, and its potential consequences for all key stakeholders at operational and strategic/political level.
2. Facilitate coordinated public communication to minimise discrepancies in the messages conveyed to the public after a significant critical infrastructure incident. Clear public communication is also important to tackle disinformation.
3. Provide coordination for an effective response by strengthening the cooperation as regards the response of Member States and cooperation between Member States and with relevant Union institutions, bodies, offices, agencies. This will mitigate the effects of a significant critical infrastructure incident and help enable swift reestablishment of essential services.

The draft Blueprint is to be applied when: 

• the incident has a significant disruptive effect to or in six or more Member States;
• the incident has a significant disruptive effect in two or more Member States, and timely policy coordination in the response at Union level is required, due to the incident's wide-ranging and significant impact of technical or political relevance.

To coordinate on response to the significant critical infrastructure incident, the Blueprint sets out several actions that can be taken at EU level, such as the support of the affected Member States through information exchange, the organisation of expert meetings, the preparation of situational awareness reports, and the coordination of public communication lines and of the response. The coordinated response may also include technical support of other Member States or relevant EU institutions, bodies and agencies, if so requested by the affected Member States, and activation of EU crisis coordination mechanisms and use of EU instruments.

Points of contact for matters relating to the Critical Infrastructure Blueprint are foreseen for all actors involved. Member States affected by the significant critical infrastructure incident are to share with the rotating Presidency of the Council and the Commission relevant information on the incident, as approrpriate. The Recommendation foresees that the Member States, the Council, the Commission and, where appropriate, the EEAS and relevant EU bodies, offices and agencies should apply the Blueprint without delay whenever a significant critical infrastructure incident occurs.

Next steps

This proposal is currently being discussed by the Council.

Background

The EU has had a legal and policy framework for the protection of critical infrastructure for almost 15 years. This has been updated with the Directive on Critical Entities Resilience (CER Directive), which entered into force in January 2023. In light of the current security context, a Council Recommendation on a Union-wide coordinated approach to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure was adopted on 8 December 2022 following a Commission proposal. In that Recommendation, the Council highlighted, among others, the need to ensure at Union level a coordinated and effective response to risks to the provision of essential services. It invited the Commission “to draft a Blueprint on a coordinated response to disruptions of critical infrastructure with significant cross-border relevance”.