Considerații privind concepția Alianței Nord-Atlantice și cea a Uniunii Europene vizând protecția infrastructurilor critice

Abstract

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) agree that the strategy of conflict management has undergone fundamental changes in that the neutralisation of critical infrastructure has become an element that facilitates success much more easily than the neutralisation of an adversary’s forces, as it triggers chain reactions leading to the destabilisation of society. According to NATO and EU experts, an infrastructure can only be considered critical when it becomes essential and of particular importance to the functionality of a system and when some or all of its components become vulnerable to certain threats. From this perspective, NATO’s concerns for the protection of critical infrastructure are set out specifically in Directives 114/2008 and 2557/2022, and those of the EU have been extended in particular after the terrorist attacks of 11 March 2004 in Madrid. With this in mind, the following are some considerations regarding the need to prevent the neutralisation or destruction of critical infrastructure, presented from NATO and EU perspectives.