PROTECTION OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE – A STRATEGIC STAKE OF THE 21ST CENTURY
PROTECTION OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE – A STRATEGIC STAKE OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: The perturbations that have occurred in recent history regarding critical infrastructure have highlighted two essential features. Firstly, critical infrastructure was exposed to unexpected incidents of a wide variety, mostly natural disasters, and secondly, the dysfunctionality and local damages due to the phenomenon of interaction and cross-border logics of functioning of the systems has created a domino effect in the security dimensions. On the other hand, the risks have evolved, extreme meteorological incidents have been observed, threats to health security, such as the pandemic have become widespread, cyber-attacks have appeared as a result of technological progress, the technical-technological and economic interdependence has been emphasized, as the evolution of the economic environment and the market have also affirmed that there is a need for international legal regulation. In the last twenty years, especially after the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001 in New York, the issue of critical infrastructure protection has caused particular attention in the majority of industrialized countries, with the USA, the EU, Australia, Japan, Russia in the forefront, but also in a number of countries aspiring to join the EU. The war in Ukraine demonstrated the strategic importance of critical infrastructure. Between October 2022 and April 2023, Russia carried out 1.200 attacks on Ukraine’s energy system. These attacks damaged 45% of the high-voltage grid and half of Ukraine’s power generation, leaving more than 12 million people without electricity. According to an estimate by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the damage to Ukraine’s electricity, gas, and heating infrastructure exceeds $ 10 billion. Furthermore, according to Marie Struthers, Director for Eastern Europe and Asia at Amnesty International, the morale of the civilian population is not a legitimate target; however, carrying out attacks on critical infrastructure to terrorize civilians is a war crime. That is why this paper makes a brief interpretation of the need for critical infrastructure protection at the EU level, including a brief analysis of the methodology of establishing critical infrastructure protection.

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