Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

FRANCE

MANUEL SUTER AND ELGIN BRUNNER

Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich, Switzerland

1 CRITICAL SECTORS

All infrastructures that are vital to the maintenance of primary social and economic processes are considered critical sectors in France. These critical sectors are the following:¹

• Finance,
• Industry,
• Energy,
• The work of the judiciary,
• Public Health,
• The work of national civil authorities,
• Electronic Communication, Audiovisual Media, and Information Technology,
• Transport Systems,
• Water Supply,
• Food,
• Space and Research,
• The Armed Forces.

A decree was issued in 2006 on the protection of essential economic sectors;¹ it aims to upgrade regulations pertaining to vulnerabilities by harmonizing the interagency state approach for analyzing hazards in terms of the nature of the threat, while expanding the list of issues to be taken into account and by including the flexible measures provided for within the framework of the Vigipirate plan.² Thus, each of the 12 essential economic sectors will include a national security directive for essential operators, who are in turn tasked with setting up their own operator security plan under the supervision of the ministry they are subordinated to; this plan is also intended for other major agencies to set up their own protection plans.

The French regulatory framework has been updated accordingly. Its approach is based on risk management and prevention/reaction plans. The national committee, the interdepartmental commission, and the ...