Mona Neubaur, the Minister of Energy and Deputy Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia (Grüne), has criticized the federal government for reacting “far too hesitantly” to acts of sabotage targeting power grid infrastructure. In a guest article for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Saturday edition), Neubaur stressed that the hybrid threat is a reality and that it is time for an honest assessment and decisive action.
The politician from the Green Party urged the federal government to create a clear legal basis for adequate preventative environment monitoring to better protect critical infrastructure. She proposed that surveillance cameras should not only be used on the property itself but also in the immediate vicinity where necessary. In her view, compromises regarding data protection should not be an absolute barrier. “To put it clearly: when balancing security and data protection, I choose security,” the NRW Energy Minister continued.
Neubaur stated that the federal government has failed to provide essential answers. While the KRITIS Roof Law, passed in March, finally offered a unified framework for protecting critical national infrastructure, she argued that the law shifts many key questions into other legal acts and further processes that take years. “Even half a year later, far too many gaps remain,” Neubaur complained, noting that guidelines and templates were missing, making concrete implementation impossible. Consequently, many operators of critical infrastructure facilities were unsure of what standards they were supposed to follow.
Furthermore, Neubaur called on the federal government to establish mandatory, ideally uniform, minimum standards for the physical protection of critical facilities. These standards should be risk-oriented and tailored to the type and importance of the specific asset, but must define a baseline level that every affected operator is required to maintain. Such requirements should particularly include mandates concerning access control, detection and alarm technology, organizational security measures, as well as response and emergency plans.
