Storm reveals critical infrastructure gaps in Lithuania

A recent storm served as a stark test of Lithuania's preparedness, exposing vulnerabilities in its critical infrastructure, especially within the energy sector. President Gitanas Nausėda's top advisor, Ramūnas Dilba, emphasized that bolstering the resilience of critical infrastructure, particularly energy, remains a key priority. "The President constantly stresses the necessity of increasing the resilience of critical, especially energy, infrastructure," Dilba told reporters.

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The President constantly stresses the necessity of increasing the resilience of critical, especially energy, infrastructure.

Lithuania, along with Latvia, Estonia, and Poland, has secured EU funding for the first time in the bloc's history to protect critical energy infrastructure from hybrid threats. The allocated 130 million euros, while not vast, is considered a positive start, with plans for future increases in funding. The Ministry of Energy has outlined both short-term measures to prevent hybrid attacks on the energy grid and long-term projects, such as the "seven islands" model, which will be partly funded by the EU and partly by the companies themselves.

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Although the funds are not very large – 130 million euros – it is a good start.

Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas acknowledged that while crisis preparedness efforts are underway, the lessons from the recent storm should spur accelerated improvements. "I believe that preparations are proceeding quite intensively and work is being done, but perhaps this aspect – the lessons from the 2024 storm – was missed," Olekas told Elta. He stressed the urgency of speeding up the cabling of power grids, considering wider clearing for power lines, and acquiring additional resources like generators. Olekas also highlighted that crisis resilience depends not only on the state or infrastructure operators but also on municipalities and citizens.

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I believe that preparations are proceeding quite intensively and work is being done, but perhaps this aspect – the lessons from the 2024 storm – was missed.

Opposition leader Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen echoed these sentiments, viewing the storm's aftermath as another test revealing preparedness gaps. "I think the storm's consequences and how we handle it are undoubtedly another test. And does it show our preparedness gaps for various threats? Again, undoubtedly, yes," she told Elta. Čmilytė-Nielsen compared the situation to previous drone incidents where relatively minor events significantly impacted daily life. She believes preparedness must encompass not only threats posed by adversaries but also the impacts of extreme weather events driven by climate change.

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I think the storm's consequences and how we handle it are undoubtedly another test. And does it show our preparedness gaps for various threats? Again, undoubtedly, yes.