Article 7 Significant disruptive effect

In order to ensure that all relevant entities are subject to the resiliencemeans a critical entity’s ability to prevent, protect against, respond to, resist, mitigate, absorb, accommodate and recover from an incident; requirements of this Directive and to reduce divergences in that respect, it is important to lay down harmonised rules allowing for a consistent identification of critical entitiesmeans a public or private entity which has been identified by a Member State in accordance with Article 6 as belonging to one of the categories set out in the third column of the table in the Annex; across the Union, while also allowing Member States to adequately reflect the role and importance of those entities at national level. When applying the criteria laid down in this Directive, each Member State should identify entities that provide one or more essential servicesmeans a service which is crucial for the maintenance of vital societal functions, economic activities, public health and safety, or the environment; and that operate and have critical infrastructuremeans an asset, a facility, equipment, a network or a system, or a part of an asset, a facility, equipment, a network or a system, which is necessary for the provision of an essential service; located on its territory. An entity should be considered to operate on the territory of a Member State in which it carries out activities necessary for the essential servicemeans a service which is crucial for the maintenance of vital societal functions, economic activities, public health and safety, or the environment; or services in question and in which that entity’s critical infrastructuremeans an asset, a facility, equipment, a network or a system, or a part of an asset, a facility, equipment, a network or a system, which is necessary for the provision of an essential service;, which is used to provide that service or those services, is located. Where no entity meets those criteria in a Member State, that Member State should be under no obligation to identify a critical entitymeans a public or private entity which has been identified by a Member State in accordance with Article 6 as belonging to one of the categories set out in the third column of the table in the Annex; in the corresponding sector or subsector. In the interests of effectiveness, efficiency, consistency and legal certainty, appropriate rules should be established as regards notifying entities that they have been identified as critical entitiesmeans a public or private entity which has been identified by a Member State in accordance with Article 6 as belonging to one of the categories set out in the third column of the table in the Annex;.

Criteria should be established to determine the significance of a disruptive effect produced by an incidentmeans an event which has the potential to significantly disrupt, or that disrupts, the provision of an essential service, including when it affects the national systems that safeguard the rule of law;. Those criteria should build on the criteria set out in Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council(⁶)Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union (OJ L 194, 19.7.2016, p. 1). in order to capitalise on the efforts carried out by Member States to identify operators of essential servicesmeans a service which is crucial for the maintenance of vital societal functions, economic activities, public health and safety, or the environment; as defined in that Directive and the experience gained in that regard. Major crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have shown the importance of ensuring the security of the supply chain and have demonstrated how its disruption can have a negative economic and societal impact across a large number of sectors and across borders. Therefore, Member States should also consider effects on the supply chain, to the extent possible, when determining the extent to which other sectors and subsectors depend on the essential servicemeans a service which is crucial for the maintenance of vital societal functions, economic activities, public health and safety, or the environment; provided by a critical entitymeans a public or private entity which has been identified by a Member State in accordance with Article 6 as belonging to one of the categories set out in the third column of the table in the Annex;.