Assignment for the European Investment Bank
DEM embarked on a project for the European Investment Bank (EIB) supporting the Bank’s efforts to step up its contribution to Europe’s security under the major initiative – European Security Initiative (ESI). The Bank was required to demonstrate EUR 2 billion per year of security related investments over a three year period in key sectors such as energy, transport, water supply, health, financial institutions and markets infrastructure.
The security related investments covered various areas, including:
- increased resilience and protection of critical infrastructure and essential services
- protection of public spaces and increasing security of citizens at local level
- support for Member States national authorities to face new technological challenges (such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies, AI)
- upgrading cyber and IT forensics capacity for both private and public actors
- facilitation of exchange of best practices among security actors
- investment to increase security of access at borders and infrastructure to support cross border cooperation among competent authorities (police, judicial, customs).
As part of our assistance to EIB, we:
- Proposed an approach for identifying cybersecurity related investments for each project type in different sectors
- Prepared a report showing cybersecurity related components of investment projects and their costs
- Defined the most suitable metrics, and default values of cybersecurity related investments for each project type in different sectors
- Prepared a comprehensive report based on findings and conclusions.
Based on the outputs of the Assignments, the Bank prepared a Guidance Note for Security Investments (‘Guidance Note’), which serves as a tool for project promoters to assess which projects and which components of them will contribute to improve security at very early stages of project development. In this way, the Assignment will allow project promoters to prioritize investments in terms of their contributions to improving security on a systematic basis.
