The European Programme for the protection of critical infrastructures – meta-governing a new security problem?

Abstract

Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) constitutes a paradigmatic as well as challenging case for EU security governance, which has received limited academic attention to date. This article draws on a heuristic framework to survey the EU's capacities to 'meta-govern', that is, to stimulate and steer governance efforts across multiple sectoral and political divides, in this complex issue area. The main part of the paper assesses the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), which comprises a variety of policy instruments and initiatives, on this basis. It is shown that the attempt of an authoritative regulation of European critical infrastructures has remained narrow and of questionable effectiveness. Scientific networks have developed more dynamically, while the participation of private companies and corresponding EU financial instruments are yet to show their potential. Finally, the EU's organizational capacity in CIP suffers from a lack of coordination structures in the European Commission, but also needs to take the scarcely known Joint Research Centre (JRC) into account. The conclusions highlight the barriers to comprehensive governance of as well as large research gaps on European critical infrastructure policies.

Metagovernance of migration policy in the Asia Pacific region: an analysis of policy tools

“…Whilst several studies have examined metagovernance in multi-level contexts (e.g. Bossong, 2014), very few studies have examined metagovernance at levels above the nation state (for an exception, see : Holzscheiter, Bahr, & Pantzerhielm, 2016). Yet, what this review suggests is that the literature on metagovernance provides rich insights that deserve to be tested empirically in contexts beyond the national level to which they have been conventionally applied.…”

Power networks as targets: hazards, vulnerabilities and protection of electricity networks from the Second World War to 21 st century asymmetric conflicts

“…The cyber threat is dealt with specifically in other programs or decorrelated agencies (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) and the European institutional staff is too few on this subject to generate a real dynamic (Bossong, 2014). On the specific case of electricity grids, a thematic group on the protection of critical energy infrastructures was set up in 2010 by DG Energy and the Commission.…”

“…The Commission, through an evaluation of the EPCIP in 2013, pleaded for a more practical approach, which would also include the dominos effects that critical infrastructures of different natures (communication, energy, etc. ) can have on each other (Bossong, 2014). Energy transmission networks are one of the four priority sectors identified.…”

Putting security governance to the test: conceptual, empirical, and normative challenges

“…How are decisions being reached and implemented in different security governance arrangements? The special issue tackles these questions in three case studies from different fields of EU security policy (Bossong 2013, Ehrhart and Petretto 2013, Monar 2013) and a comparative study on security governance in different regional organizations (Kirchner and Dominguez 2013).…”

“…Finally, Raphael Bossong (2013) takes a look at the recent and particularly challenging area of critical infrastructure protection. Drawing on the concept of 'metagovernance', the article looks at the EU's capacity to stimulate and steer governance efforts across multiple sectorial and political divides.…”