AN OVERVIEW OF EUROPEAN UNION AND UNITED STATES CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION POLICIES

The emerging challenge of the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) has been recognizedby nearly all member states of the European Union, especially the US who pioneered and took up this issue, especially since 9/11. Policy makers are increasingly aware of the threats to critical infrastructures and there has been a concerted national response. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland already have quite advanced initiatives and real measures. Other countries, although lagging behind, are striving to align their own internal policy process with current and mature CIP policies. This paper sets out to provide an overview of CIP policies in the European Union and United States. It focuses on the most important EU CIP initiatives, policies and projects in the last decade including ENISA, EPCIP and ERNCIP and discusses the collaboration in CIP strategies between the EU and the USA, including standardization and NATO