Raphael Perl, the head of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Action against Terrorism Unit, has said that international co-operation is essential to comprehensively and secure energy infrastructure against terrorist attacks.
He concliuded: "The economic importance of the energy infrastructure system and interdependencies in the energy supply network leave us vulnerable to terrorist attacks on major facilities, nodes or routes, aimed at paralysing the whole system by cascade effect."
Earlier he said: "A destruction or disruption of critical energy infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, dams of hydroelectric power plants or major pipelines, would have potentially a serious, if not catastrophic, impact on the health, safety, security and economic well-being of citizens," said Perl. He was addressing a meeting of NATO’s Economic Committee in Brussels in September.<br><br>"International co-operation is indispensable and key in this respect, and international organisations, such as the OSCE, have a role to play in their different fields of expertise, where they can add value to existing efforts."<br><br>Perl said it was crucial to "foster a proactive, comprehensive, inclusive and co-operative approach" in order to secure the entire energy supply chain. "As we cannot protect everything, preparedness, resiliency and recovery capacity are paramount to ensuring continuity of energy supply," he said.<br><br>The OSCE official stressed the importance of public-private partnerships with the energy sector, saying: "we should not think of security measures as a costly response to the terrorist threat, but rather as an investment opportunity. The same measures also apply to mitigating other criminal threats, as well as possible accidents or natural disasters."<br><br>To read the speech in full –
