Resilience: the first line of defence

The current unpredictable security environment has led to a renewed focus on civil preparedness. EDA and its member states must be ready for a wide range of contingencies, which could severely impact societies and critical infrastructure.

In 2016, at the Warsaw Summit, Allied leaders committed to enhancing resilience by striving to achieve seven baseline requirements for civil preparedness:

  1. assured continuity of government and critical government services;
  2. resilient energy supplies;
  3. ability to deal effectively with uncontrolled movement of people;
  4. resilient food and water resources;
  5. ability to deal with mass casualties;
  6. resilient civil communications systems;
  7. resilient civil transportation systems.

This commitment is based on the recognition that the strategic environment has changed, and that the resilience of civil structures, resources and services is the first line of defence for today’s modern societies.

More resilient countries – where the whole of government as well as the public and private sectors are involved in civil preparedness planning – have fewer vulnerabilities that can otherwise be used as leverage or be targeted by adversaries. Resilience is therefore an important aspect of deterrence by denial: persuading an adversary not to attack by convincing it that an attack will not achieve its intended objectives.

Resilient societies also have a greater propensity to bounce back after crises: they tend to recover more rapidly and are able to return to pre-crisis functional levels with greater ease than less resilient societies. This makes continuity of government and essential services to the population more durable. Similarly, it enhances the ability for the civil sector to support a military operation, including the capacity to rapidly reinforce an Ally.

Critical energy infrastrutures

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In-deep Info

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Facts and figures

Buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of EU energy consumption and 36% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings are therefore the single largest energy consumer in Europe.

At present, about 35% of the EU's buildings are over 50 years old and almost 75% of the building stock is energy inefficient. At the same time, only about 1% of the building stock is renovated each year.

Renovation of existing buildings can lead to significant energy savings, as it could reduce the EU’s total energy consumption by 5-6% and lower CO2 emissions by about 5%.

Investments in energy efficiency stimulates the economy, especially the construction industry, which generates about 9% of Europe’s GDP and directly accounts for 18 million direct jobs. SMEs in particular, benefit from a boosted renovation market, as they contribute more than 70% of the value-added in EU’s building sector.

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