Resilience in the European context

Faced with various geopolitical, climatic, economic and technological risk factors, the EU is challenged to anticipate and manage crises of various kinds. In addition to an improved cross-sectoral and cross-border crisis management, this particularly requires an improvement in civil and military preparedness and defence capabilities in the EU and its Member States.

Resilience means not only coping well with current crises, but also adapting to change and being able to recover quickly from disruptions while maintaining core functions. Resilience is generally understood in broad terms and encompasses numerous dimensions, such as the economy or health, social and community life, the institutional sphere, climate and the environment, as well as security and geopolitics.

Under the slogan "Resilience 2.0", the EU is pursuing a proactive and forward-looking approach. To this end, the European Commission's annual Strategic Foresight Report 2025 defines 8 key areas for ensuring the EU's long-term resilience.

The EU Preparedness Union Strategy presented in March 2025 largely takes up the conclusions of the Niinistö report on improving civil and military preparedness and defence capabilities in the EU. The Strategy is a key instrument in the effort to ensure efficient preparedness and defence for society as a whole, individual citizens and critical infrastructure in order to safeguard Europe's basis of life, values, economic stability and sustainable prosperity. It outlines a vision for joint efforts by EU institutions, Member States and civil society to achieve these goals by 2030.

Key actions

• Foresight and anticipation,
• resilience of vital societal functions,
• population preparedness,
• public-private cooperation,
• civil-military cooperation,
• crisis response coordination,
• resilience through external partnerships.

The Strategy comprises a total of 63 measures and should be viewed in the context of other key initiatives at EU level, which complement each other. These include, among others:

• ProtectEU – a European Internal Security Strategy,
• White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030,
• European Climate Adaptation Plan,
• Critical Medicines Act,
• Clean Industrial Deal,
• European Oceans Pact,
• European Democracy Shield and the
• Union of Skills.

Austria considers the comprehensive approach of the Strategy to be a solid basis for a coordinated and effective response to complex challenges. The implementation of the Strategy is regularly being discussed at technical level in the "Ad hoc Working Party on preparedness, response capability and resilience to future crises".

Contact in the Austrian Federal Chancellery

Department IV/9
E-Mail: abteilung-iv9@bka.gv.at

Department IV/10 (for questions regarding strategic foresight and long-term resilience)
E-Mail: iv10@bka.gv.at

Further information