EU urges countries to prepare for security threats from Middle East

National governments must do more to prevent terrorists entering the EU from the Middle East and are failing to protect critical infrastructure, the European Commission has warned.

“While we all hope for a swift resolution to the conflict in the Middle East, we must be prepared for all possible scenarios,” Magnus Brunner, the EU’s internal security commissioner wrote in a letter he sent to the 27 EU home affairs ministers on 25 March, exclusively seen by Euractiv’s newsletter Rapporteur.

Brunner urged countries to comply with a 2022 EU directive on protecting parts of national infrastructure, be it energy grids or financial institutions, that could become “soft targets” for attacks.

The deadline passed in 2024 for national governments to incorporate the Critical Entities Resilience law into their own legal regimes. Its purpose is to ensure countries bolster the resilience of eleven critical sectors, from health care to transport, so they can bounce back in case of attacks.

“A number of member states have not yet completed transposition, and for those who have put the laws in place, challenges remain as regards implementation,” the former Austrian finance minister wrote.

Governments are also struggling to implement the directive’s sister law, known as NIS2, which protects the cybersecurity of critical sectors.

Brunner also warned that the EU’s new Entry/Exit system (EES) to record travellers’ biometric data, due to be fully operational by Friday, must not leave “security gaps” if countries can’t get it up and running on time. A vast majority of countries is expected to be able to get the EES operational this week, though.

National administrations should make use of the Schengen Information System to flag people who spark security worries, Brunner said. “This is particularly important in the context of potentially returning Foreign terrorist fighters,” he said.

The Commission will make €5 million available to help countries defend Jewish sites that could be terror targets, and is “looking into increasing” this fund, Brunner said.

While there have been “no increased migratory flows to the EU” linked to the Iran war, he urged countries to intensify preparations for the bloc’s new migration pact ahead of the June deadline, noting that “the level of readiness varies across the EU.”

The European Commission has put security at the centre of its new political agenda, and has tasked its diplomatic service with drawing up a new comprehensive strategy.

Claudie Moreau contributed reporting