Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) has called for increased protection of critical infrastructure in Germany following recent power outages in Spain and Portugal. The new government has urged her to quickly pass a bill aimed at improving protection, stating that the outages had a magnitude not yet seen in Europe. While no impact on Germany’s energy supply was reported, Faeser emphasized the need to learn from such incidents and ensure maximum security for critical infrastructure. She called for stronger resilience and reducing dependencies and security risks in all critical infrastructure sectors, citing the successful implementation of this approach in the 5G communication networks. Faeser referred to a draft bill on critical infrastructure protection that she had presented to the cabinet last year, which established binding protection standards for all sectors from water supply to energy, telecommunications and transportation. However, due to the coalition break, the bill was not passed by the Bundestag. She stated that events like the power outages in the Iberian Peninsula highlight the importance of strong resilience against all threats and risks. She called for the bill on critical infrastructure protection to be reintroduced and passed by the Bundestag as soon as possible, in order to implement EU legislation.
Faeser Calls for Enhanced Protection of Germany’s Critical Infrastructure After Iberian Power Outages
