Chapter V – Cooperation and reporting (Art. 19-20)

1. A Critical Entities Resilience Group is hereby established. The Critical Entities Resilience Group shall support the Commission and facilitate cooperation among Member States and the exchange of information on issues relating to this Directive.

2. The Critical Entities Resilience Group shall be composed of representatives of the Member States and the Commission who hold security clearance, where appropriate. Where relevant for the performance of its tasks, the Critical Entities Resilience Group may invite relevant stakeholders to participate in its work. Where requested by the European Parliament, the Commission may invite experts from the European Parliament to attend meetings of the Critical Entities Resilience Group.

The Commission’s representative shall chair the Critical Entities Resilience Group.

3. The Critical Entities Resilience Group shall have the following tasks:

(a) supporting the Commission in assisting Member States in reinforcing their capacity to contribute to ensuring the resilience of critical entities in accordance with this Directive;

(b) analysing the strategies in order to identify best practices in respect of the strategies;

(c) facilitating the exchange of best practices with regard to the identification of critical entities by the Member States pursuant to Article 6(1), including in relation to cross-border and cross-sectoral dependencies and regarding risks and incidents;

(d) where appropriate, contributing on issues relating to this Directive to documents concerning resilience at Union level;

(e) contributing to the preparation of the guidelines referred to in Article 7(3) and Article 13(5) and, upon request, any delegated or implementing acts adopted pursuant to this Directive;

(f) analysing the summary reports referred to in Article 9(3) with a view to promoting the sharing of best practices on the action taken in accordance with Article 15(3);

(g) exchanging best practices related to the notification of incidents referred to in Article 15;

(h) discussing the summary reports of advisory missions and the lessons learned in accordance with Article 18(10);

(i) exchanging information and best practices on innovation, research and development relating to the resilience of critical entities in accordance with this Directive;

(j) where relevant, exchanging information on matters concerning the resilience of critical entities with relevant Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies.

4. By 17 January 2025 and every two years thereafter, the Critical Entities Resilience Group shall establish a work programme in respect of actions to be undertaken to implement its objectives and tasks. That work programme shall be consistent with the requirements and objectives of this Directive.

5. The Critical Entities Resilience Group shall meet on a regular basis and in any event at least once a year with the Cooperation Group established under Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to promote and facilitate cooperation and the exchange of information.

6. The Commission may adopt implementing acts laying down procedural arrangements necessary for the functioning of the Critical Entities Resilience Group, respecting Article 1(4). Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 24(2).

7. The Commission shall provide the Critical Entities Resilience Group with a summary report of the information provided by the Member States pursuant to Article 4(3) and Article 5(4) by 17 January 2027, whenever necessary subsequently, and at least every four years.

1. The Commission shall, where appropriate, support Member States and critical entities in complying with their obligations under this Directive. The Commission shall prepare a Union-level overview of cross-border and cross-sectoral risks to the provision of essential services, organise advisory missions as referred to in Article 13(4) and Article 18 and facilitate information exchange among Member States and experts across the Union.

2. The Commission shall complement Member States’ activities as referred to in Article 10 by developing best practices, guidance materials and methodologies, and cross-border training activities and exercises to test the resilience of critical entities.

3. The Commission shall inform Member States about financial resources at Union level available to Member States for enhancing the resilience of critical entities.