Assessment of the european programme for critical infrastructure protection in the surface transport sector

In the course of emerging threats of the 21st century, this paper aims at supporting the further development of the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), in particular the directive 2008/114/EC on designation and protection of European Critical Infrastructures. It provides a comprehensive review of this legal framework by compiling experiences of practitioners collected during the European Surface Transport Operator (EUSTO) forum and a series of semi-structured expert interviews. The answers of the EUSTO participants assess how the single elements and approaches of the EPCIP have affected their work. Furthermore, the review identifies the challenges that need to be addressed in the future. The third part of this paper provides a guideline on setting up an Operator Security Plan, which is specifically required by the directive. The template could initiate European harmonisation of security plans, contributing to the improvement of EPCIP.