InvigoratEU Long Policy Report on rules alignment of protecting critical infrastructure in interdependent states (D7.1)

The report provides an extensive discussion of evolving landscape of threats to the CI in the EU and selected candidate countries in recent years and the challenges which, while varying depending on particular countries, also are common to all states affected by geopolitical tensions. The analysis of threats to energy, communications, transport and other CI in the Baltic States, Ukraine and the Baltic Sea region shows that hostile activities by authoritarian states, in particular, Russia, or actors linked to them have become increasingly frequent. Their proliferation especially intensified after Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, as it also became a wider confrontation between the West and authoritarian powers. The analysis of CI-related policies in Montenegro, Ukraine and Georgia – three candidate countries, which differ in terms of their state of accession into the EU, their connectivity patterns and risks to their CI associated with them – allows to assess different challenges arising to their CI and provision of vital services to society and state and methods of coping with them in each of them. The report concludes with recommendations emphasising the importance of daily practices of partnership and exercises involving all stakeholders of CI ecosystems and cooperation with the EU and NATO partners, taking into account different patterns of interdependencies and existing threats.