European critical entities are more interconnected and interdependent, which makes them stronger and more efficient but also more vulnerable in case of an incident. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has brought new risks, physical and cyber-attacks, often combined as a hybrid threat. The sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines and other recent incidents made it clear that the resilience of the EU critical infrastructure is under threat. Action is urgently needed to step up the EU's capacity to protect itself against attacks on critical infrastructure, both in the EU and its direct neighbourhood.