Critical infrastructures development aligned with European union procedures. Evidence from Romania

Ionut-Catalin Savu,Gheorghe Militaru

doi:10.2478/picbe-2021-0043

Abstract

Abstract This paper aims to emphasize the significance of the Critical Infrastructures in a general European context, as well as a divided approach on the Romanian types of critical infrastructures and their specifics. The main topics approached in the article are analyzing the processes undergone to identify and regulate Critical Infrastructures in the field of Transportation, Energy production, Water and sanitation, Nuclear Industry in Romania, as well as to adapt and standardize the Romanian legislation to the legislation of the European Union. Although in the international literature the Critical Infrastructures are fully covered, the Romanian literature is scarce and not unified, due to the fact the Critical Infrastructure notion is new and in ongoing development. The source that legislates which infrastructures are considered of critical importance in Romania is the emergency ordinance 98/2010, that has been repeatedly altered and is still subjected to critique and amendment attempts. The author, as security representative of a private infrastructure in the energy field, proposes completions of the procedures that determine the criticality of an infrastructure in the energy field through the ACIS methodology. There was proposed a set of directions for the Romanian Critical Infrastructures alignment, with the rules introduced by the European Critical Infrastructure Protection Program, and, as well, adaptations of the requirements of the European Commission in relation to the Council Directive no. 2008/114 / EC. We were aiming to strengthen and increase the resilience of Romanian Critical Infrastructures, making them more efficient, smart and robust.

Highlights

IntroductionCritical infrastructure is an element, system or component thereof which is essential to maintaining the vital functions of society, health, safety, security, social or economic well-being of individuals and whose disruption or destruction would have a significant impact at national level as a result of the inability to maintain those functions.It is considered that an infrastructure is critical when it has a strategic position in the general system and has a high number of interdependencies with other components of the system or other infrastructures.Council Directive 2008/114 / EC(The Council of the European Union, 2008), which legislates the identification and designation of European critical infrastructures and the assessment of the need to improve their protection, adopted on December 8, 2008, gives the following definition in art. 2, paragraph. a: "Critical infrastructure refers to those objectives, networks, services, physical activities and IT resources that are so vital to nations that their decommissioning or destruction can have a serious impact on health, safety, security or economic well-being of citizens, or on the effective functioning of the governing act of the Member States ”.There are cited a number of Critical Infrastructures of the Country, as, Infrastructures of the national energy system networks, railway networks with all related structures, commandcontrol and traffic control systems etc.; the national air transport network, with all related infrastructures; shipping infrastructures, national communications, national alert network infrastructures; networks of national oil and gas pipelines or that are part of continental transport networks, etc. (Hopkin, P., 2018).The source that legislates which infrastructures are considered of critical importance in Romania is the emergency ordinance 98/2010 (Guvernul României, 2010).The responsibility for organizing the implementation of specific legislation rests with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the National Center for Coordination of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CNCPIC), with which public and private operators collaborate to improve the protection of Critical Infrastructures in accordance with European Commission requirements
Council Directive 2008/114 / EC(The Council of the European Union, 2008), which legislates the identification and designation of European critical infrastructures and the assessment of the need to improve their protection, adopted on December 8, 2008, gives the following definition in art. 2, paragraph. a: "Critical infrastructure refers to those objectives, networks, services, physical activities and IT resources that are so vital to nations that their decommissioning or destruction can have a serious impact on health, safety, security or economic well-being of citizens, or on the effective functioning of the governing act of the Member States ”
The responsibility for organizing the implementation of specific legislation rests with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the National Center for Coordination of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CNCPIC), with which public and private operators collaborate to improve the protection of Critical Infrastructures in accordance with European Commission requirements

Summary

Introduction

Critical infrastructure is an element, system or component thereof which is essential to maintaining the vital functions of society, health, safety, security, social or economic well-being of individuals and whose disruption or destruction would have a significant impact at national level as a result of the inability to maintain those functions.It is considered that an infrastructure is critical when it has a strategic position in the general system and has a high number of interdependencies with other components of the system or other infrastructures.Council Directive 2008/114 / EC(The Council of the European Union, 2008), which legislates the identification and designation of European critical infrastructures and the assessment of the need to improve their protection, adopted on December 8, 2008, gives the following definition in art. 2, paragraph. a: "Critical infrastructure refers to those objectives, networks, services, physical activities and IT resources that are so vital to nations that their decommissioning or destruction can have a serious impact on health, safety, security or economic well-being of citizens, or on the effective functioning of the governing act of the Member States ”.There are cited a number of Critical Infrastructures of the Country, as, Infrastructures of the national energy system networks, railway networks with all related structures, commandcontrol and traffic control systems etc.; the national air transport network, with all related infrastructures; shipping infrastructures, national communications, national alert network infrastructures; networks of national oil and gas pipelines or that are part of continental transport networks, etc. (Hopkin, P., 2018).The source that legislates which infrastructures are considered of critical importance in Romania is the emergency ordinance 98/2010 (Guvernul României, 2010).The responsibility for organizing the implementation of specific legislation rests with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the National Center for Coordination of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CNCPIC), with which public and private operators collaborate to improve the protection of Critical Infrastructures in accordance with European Commission requirements. Critical infrastructure is an element, system or component thereof which is essential to maintaining the vital functions of society, health, safety, security, social or economic well-being of individuals and whose disruption or destruction would have a significant impact at national level as a result of the inability to maintain those functions. It is considered that an infrastructure is critical when it has a strategic position in the general system and has a high number of interdependencies with other components of the system or other infrastructures. A: "Critical infrastructure refers to those objectives, networks, services, physical activities and IT resources that are so vital to nations that their decommissioning or destruction can have a serious impact on health, safety, security or economic well-being of citizens, or on the effective functioning of the governing act of the Member States ”.

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