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COLLABORATION

Mission: Facilitate active collaboration of European Critical Infrastructures (CIs)

Objectives: WP1 is providing a framework for understanding the specific functioning of the European CIs and cooperation mechanisms in the national to the international security environments. WP1 is operating in two directions, (i) to gather inputs for the project and (ii) to explore and define new ways of cooperation.

Joint KPI: 167 workshops participants – Highlighting the engagement of knowledgeable experts and their enthusiastic participation

Main Results of the 1st project year:
1st round of physical national collaboration workshops with CI stakeholders implemented in ES, IT and SI
Joint Key takeaways:

  • There was a general issue in getting trustworthy information from authorities.
  • There were experiences of norms and laws fast changing.
  • The lack of good national plans to centralize and coordinate crisis management when needed, and to better coordinate and communicate with regional/local governments, was highlighted in some countries.
2nd round of physical national collaboration workshops with CI stakeholders implemented in ES, IT and SI

Joint Key takeaways:

  • Most CI are not ready to take on a new pandemic, yet they know that they can reuse some of the previous strategies.
  • Climate change is not part of the CIs strategy, therefore, they are not preparing for it. While they are not ready for chronic conditions, they are able to react to acute events.
  • CIs consider the threats as dangerous or impactful, because of their possible economic and operational impact.
1st Pan-European collaboration workshop implemented online

Joint Key takeaways:

  • The need for expanding collaboration was strongly expressed, especially importance of EU Institutional collaboration in relation to the CIs including relevant information and intelligence sharing as well as challenges of CIs adoption to new EU legislation and its implementation. Expanding or establishing network and connections within the SUNRISE project would be a valuable endeavor, indicating a recognition of the benefits of collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
  •  Interdependencies are an essential aspect of Business Continuity Management (BCM), as they refer to the relationships and connections between different components within an organization or between different organizations. Understanding and managing interdependencies is crucial for effective business continuity planning. Therefore, BCM plans have to be well prepared including supply food chains and other daily assets.
  • More resilience can be achieved also via cross-sector national and EU exercises for “black-out” scenario. The perception that the pandemic is almost forgotten suggests a shift in focus away from the immediate crisis and towards longer-term resilience planning and preparedness. Therefore more proactive approach should be in order to ditch the more reactive that was implemented.
  • The issue of cybersecurity was highlighted, emphasizing its significance in safeguarding critical infrastructures and addressing potential vulnerabilities. The transition to a remote work model imposed an unexpected workload for HR, as well as the likelihood of cyber-attacks.
  • There is a growing trend towards increasing self-sufficiency within organizations, aiming to reduce the risk of business interruption during larger-scale crises. Though all organizations acknowledged their dependence on the services provided by the public and private sectors, particularly in the domains of energy and transport. Collaboration and coordination are essential for ensuring smooth operations.