The European Council is set to “strongly” condemn “acts of sabotage against critical infrastructure, such as those committed against the Nord Stream pipelines”, according to draft European Council conclusions dated Tuesday 18 October.
The European Union “will respond in a united and determined manner to any deliberate disruption of critical infrastructure or other hybrid actions”, the draft document adds.
On Tuesday, the Commission proposed an EU Council recommendation for Member States to step up their threat preparedness and resilience to attacks (see EUROPE 13045/11). The European Council will ask “to take forward work quickly” on this proposal as well as the implementation of the revised ‘NIS 2’ directives on network security and on the resilience of critical entities.
The EU27 will also call on Member States “to take urgent and effective action and to cooperate with each other, with the Commission and with other relevant actors”.
Member States are expected to welcome the presentation of the recommendation, although the debate on the subject will not necessarily be in-depth, two diplomatic sources said on Wednesday 19 October.
Link to the draft conclusions of the European Council: https://aeur.eu/f/3oj (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with the editorial staff)