The External Dimension of the European Union?s Critical Infrastructure Protection Programme: From Neighbouring Frameworks to Transatlantic Cooperation

External Dimension of the European Union’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Programme: From Neighboring Frameworks to Transatlantic Cooperation provides the basis, methodological framework, and first comprehensive analysis of the current state of the external dimension European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection.

The challenges at the EU level are multidimension insofar as identifying, designating and protecting critical infrastructures with the ultimate goal of harmonizing different national policies of the Member States and creating the identity of the European Union in this arena. Modern society has become so reliant on various sectors of critical infrastructure—energy, telecommunications, transport, finance, ICT, and public services—that any disruption may lead to serious failures that impact individuals, society, and the economy. The importance of critical infrastructures grows with the industrial development of global and national communities; their interdependence and resiliency is increasingly important given security threats including terrorism, natural disaster, climate change and pandemic outbreak

In the area of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience, the European Union is constantly committed to setting the objectives for the Member States. At the same time, the European Commission promotes the importance of a common approach to Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), and ensure cooperation beyond the borders of the Union, while also cooperating with neighboring countries, including those soon willing to join the European Union.

This book has been structured and written to contribute to current critical infrastructures, resilience policy development and discussions about regional and international cooperation. It serves as a reference for those countries willing to initiate cooperation and that therefore demand deeper knowledge on the security cultures and frameworks of their potential partners.

The book explains and advocates for establishing stronger, more resilient systems to preserve functionalities at the local, national, and international levels. Security, industry, and policy experts—both practitioners and policy decision-makers—looking for answers will find the solutions they seek within this book.

Alessandro Lazari is Senior Key Account Manager at F24 in Germany. He has worked as a specialist on critical infrastructure protection, resilience and cybersecurity since 2004. He holds a Master's degree in Law (University of Bologna) and a Ph.D. in computer engineering, multimedia and telecommunications (University of Florence). Between 2010 and 2019, in his role of Scientific Officer for the European Commission’ Joint Research Centre, he worked on policy support to the "European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP)," to "Strengthening Europe’s Cyber Resilience System and Fostering a Competitive and Innovative Cybersecurity Industry." He has also contributed to some of the initiatives related to the "external dimension of the EPCIP."

Alessandro is a fellow in Legal Informatics at the School of Law of the University of Lecce, Italy, a lecturer on the course "Protecting Critical Infrastructures" at NATO’s Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (COEDAT) and co-founded the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (CRISR) at the University of Salento, Italy. He is the author of the book European Critical Infrastructure Protection (2014).

is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Zagreb in the area of Social Sciences, Field of Political Science, Subfield International Relations and National Security. Areas of his interest and expertise are: International Relations; International and National Security; Security Management; Crisis and Disaster Management; Civil Protection; Afghanistan; Privatization of Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience; Migrations and Security. He is the author and co-author of six books and more than forty scientific articles. At the previous workplace in National Protection and Rescue Directorate was in charge of affairs related to critical infrastructure, and from 2012 till 2015 the national point of contact for critical infrastructure. Prior to his academic career, he served in various positions within the Croatian security sector from the operational to the strategic level in the country and internationally. Among other things, he served in the NATO ISAF mission in Afghanistan. For merit in Afghanistan he was awarded with the NATO Medal and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.