Last month, British Embassy Athens, British Embassy Sofia and British High Commission Nicosia, in collaboration with the Office of the Greek National Security Advisor, organized a two-day conference (February 24-25, 2025) that focused on energy security and the protection of critical national infrastructure, held at the Security Studies Centre of the Ministry of Citizen Protection.

Εxperts from ministries, other state authorities and the energy sector from Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and the UK exchanged views, as well as best practices, related to legal and operational challenges, criticality assessments, critical maritime and subsea infrastructure, resilience policy, incident response, interoperability models, defence strategies and international cooperation.  A cross-government UK delegation from the Cabinet Office, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ministry of Defence and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office shared lessons learned, both domestically and internationally.

In her address, British Deputy Head of Mission Susan Geary referred to the constantly changing security environment and welcomed regional efforts to transform the Eastern Mediterranean into an energy hub that contributes to EU and NATO resilience by diversifying energy supply routes:

Protecting Critical National Infrastructure is a complex endeavour that requires cross-government coordination. Both the public and private sectors have a role to play in assessing the criticality of infrastructure, identifying cross-sector dependencies, and developing best practices for managing vulnerabilities to common risks. Having the right structures, protocols and capabilities in place is vital.

In his address, National Security Advisor Dr. Thanos Dokos noted, among other things:

Dealing with hybrid threats and protecting our critical infrastructure have become tasks of rapidly increasing importance for our security. And resilience and preparedness are now part of the daily vocabulary of security professionals. As countries in the Eastern Mediterranean start preparing for the protection of underwater and other critical infrastructure, it is important to cooperate with other EU and NATO countries and learn from each other’s experience and expertise.

Enhancing energy security, mitigating risks and preventing disruptions are key priorities for all involved. Delegates agreed to explore ways to further collaborate going forward.