Greece is drawing lessons from the massive blackout that struck Spain and Portugal in April 2025 as it seeks to strengthen defenses against crises that could spread across power grids, telecommunications networks, banks and financial markets.
The Greek government has put its National Strategy for the Resilience of Critical Entities for 2026-2030 out for public consultation, aiming to improve the country's ability to prepare for disruptions ranging from natural disasters and major technical failures to cyberattacks and other threats with potentially cascading economic effects.
The strategy focuses on sectors considered essential to the functioning of the country, including energy, transportation, healthcare and telecommunications. Particular attention is being paid to the financial system, reflecting concerns that a prolonged power outage or communications failure could quickly disrupt electronic payments, banking transactions and financial markets.
Under the proposed framework, the Bank of Greece, the country's central bank, and the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, its securities regulator, would play central roles in coordinating the response to major crises.
The plan doesn't change their existing supervisory responsibilities. Instead, it seeks to establish a permanent mechanism for cooperation between financial regulators and the government body responsible for protecting critical infrastructure.
The strategy calls for a three-way cooperation agreement among the General Secretariat for the Protection of Critical Entities, the Bank of Greece and the Hellenic Capital Market
Commission. The aim is to ensure that authorities can act in concert during a major incident, such as a widespread electricity outage or large-scale cyberattack, limiting the fallout while keeping essential financial services operating.
The approach reflects growing concern across Europe about the interconnected nature of modern infrastructure. Electricity networks support telecommunications, which in turn underpin electronic banking, payment systems and financial markets. A disruption in one sector can quickly ripple through others, potentially creating a broader economic shock.
The Iberian blackout offered a stark reminder of those vulnerabilities and the need for governments to prepare not only for the initial failure of critical infrastructure but also for the secondary effects that can spread across sectors.
For Greece's financial industry, however, the government is seeking to avoid imposing another layer of overlapping regulation. Banks and financial-market infrastructure are already covered by the European Union's Digital Operational Resilience Act, or DORA, which sets requirements for managing technology and cyber risks.
The new Greek framework therefore provides for special treatment of the financial sector to avoid duplicate inspections and regulatory overlap. The Bank of Greece would retain its role overseeing the banking industry, while the Hellenic Capital Market Commission would continue supervising areas of the country's capital markets and related infrastructure.
Overall strategic coordination would rest with the General Secretariat for the Protection of Critical Entities, rather than with a new centralized regulator.
By 2030, Greece wants its crisis-management mechanisms to be fully interoperable with DORA and the European Union's NIS2 cybersecurity framework. The effort will involve the critical-infrastructure secretariat, Greece's National Cybersecurity Authority, the central bank and the capital-markets regulator.
The objective is to create a system in which authorities responsible for different parts of the economy can coordinate quickly when a crisis crosses sectoral boundaries.
