PROTECTION OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES – EXPERIENCE OF COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION

Milovan Trbojević

Abstract

Constant changes in international relations, as well as increase of
security challenges, risks and threats, make the security situation
very complex, both at national and supranational level. Th is
results in critical infrastructure gaining new dimensions and
larger signifi cance. Namely, since critical infrastructure is an
important segment of national security, its protection presents
one of priorities of all countries.
Starting from the fact that countries in transition have various
experiences in the fi eld of protection of critical infrastructure, the
subject of analysis of this paper are normative and organizational
structure of protection of critical infrastructure in the Republic of
Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia, whose experiences could be
applied in the Republic of Serbia.
Based on obtained results we came to the conclusion that R. Slovenia
and R. Croatia, because of their spatial-geographic, political,
socio-economic and cultural similarities, as well as concerning
adoption and implementation of the policy of protection of
critical infrastructures, are a good reference point for deriving
lessons from the experiences which could be applied in the Republic
of Serbia.
In fact, these countries have done research of critical infrastructures
with implementation of the criteria of inter-sector analysis, with the
aim of identifi cation of the most important critical infrastructural
sectors, their functions and tasks, as well as defi ning of organizations,
agencies and other governmental and private associations responsible
for functioning and protection of critical infrastructures.
Following the said good practice, R. Serbia could design and
implement its system of protection of crtical infrastructures in
accordance with previous experiences of Slovenia and Croatia.
However, the models of Slovenia and Croatia cannot be taken
over and implemented in R. Serbia without certain modifi cations,
because every state has its own specifi c characteristics.
R. Serbia does not have coherent frameworks in the fi eld of protection
of critical infrastructure. As the biggest problem in this
fi eld, we should stress absence of the law on protection of critical
infrastructure. In this sense, it is necessary to execute a broadscale
research, which would include all sectors of social activities,
which would result in a relevant list of critical infrastructures.
Also, based on results of the research, relevant degree could be
defi ned of how critical an infrastructure is in comparison to others,
and characteristic inter-dependencies, specifi c for the territory
of Serbia. Aft er that, it is necessary to adopt the law on protection
of critical infrastructures, as well as by-laws.

References