Euralarm believes that resilience starts with preparedness, continuity, and rapid recovery. Fire safety, electronic security and integrated life-safety technologies are essential enablers of that resilience across Europe’s critical infrastructure sectors, from transport and energy to healthcare, telecommunications, and data centres.
Today’s systems do much more than detect incidents. They provide early warning, support operational continuity, protect people and assets, and help infrastructure operators maintain essential services during disruptive events. Modern fire detection, evacuation systems, access control, video surveillance, intrusion detection, and integrated monitoring platforms enable operators to respond faster and more effectively to both physical and hybrid threats.
In increasingly complex environments, resilience also depends on interoperability and system integration. Critical facilities require solutions that combine safety, security, and operational intelligence in a coordinated way. This integrated approach helps operators reduce downtime, strengthen situational awareness, and improve crisis response capabilities.
Euralarm also emphasises that resilience must address a broad spectrum of risks — including climate-related events, sabotage, cyber-physical threats, and supply chain disruptions. The industry therefore has a key role in delivering technologies and expertise that support not only protection, but also adaptability and recovery.
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To explore these issues, Ben Lane spoke with Peter Mita, President of Euralarm.
Q: Standardisation is a core part of Euralarm’s work with European bodies such as CEN and CENELEC. How important is harmonised technical guidance in supporting infrastructure operators as they respond to evolving resilience requirements?
Peter Mita
Harmonised standards are fundamental for building resilient and trustworthy infrastructure across Europe. Through its active engagement with CEN and CENELEC, Euralarm helps ensure that technical guidance reflects both regulatory objectives and practical operational realities.
Critical infrastructure operators increasingly face complex and cross-border challenges. Harmonised standards provide a common framework that supports reliability, interoperability, and quality assurance across Member States. They also give infrastructure operators greater confidence when specifying, installing, and maintaining systems that must perform under demanding conditions.
From Euralarm’s perspective, standardisation is not only about compliance. It is also about creating consistency, facilitating innovation, and enabling scalable resilience strategies across sectors. Standards help translate policy ambitions into practical implementation. This becomes especially important in the context of the European Union resilience agenda and frameworks such as the Critical Entities Resilience Directive, which require organisations to adopt proportionate technical and organisational measures to strengthen resilience against a wide range of threats.
Q: With infrastructure environments becoming increasingly digitalised and interconnected, how is the role of integrated fire safety and electronic security systems changing in the protection of complex facilities such as transport hubs, energy assets, and data centres?
Peter Mita
The role of integrated systems is evolving rapidly. In modern critical infrastructure environments, fire safety and electronic security systems are no longer standalone technologies — they are becoming intelligent, connected platforms that contribute directly to operational resilience and business continuity.
Facilities such as airports, rail networks, energy installations, and data centres are highly interconnected ecosystems. Operators need unified situational awareness and coordinated incident management across multiple layers of risk. Integrated systems enable faster decision-making by combining data from fire detection, access control, video surveillance, perimeter protection, building management and other operational technologies.
At the same time, digitalisation brings new challenges. As systems become more connected, cybersecurity and resilience-by-design become essential considerations. Euralarm therefore advocates for a holistic approach in which physical safety, electronic security and cyber resilience are addressed together rather than in isolation.
Another important trend is the growing use of data analytics, remote monitoring, and automation. These capabilities can significantly improve preventive maintenance, incident prediction, and response efficiency. However, technology must remain reliable, standards-based and focused on protecting people first. Ultimately, integrated systems are becoming strategic infrastructure tools that support not only protection, but also continuity of essential services and rapid recovery after disruption.
Q: Public–private cooperation is central to Europe’s resilience agenda. How does Euralarm support collaboration between industry, policymakers, and infrastructure operators in implementing frameworks such as the Critical Entities Resilience Directive?
Peter Mita
Euralarm sees collaboration as essential to achieving effective resilience outcomes. The challenges facing critical infrastructure today are too complex for any single stakeholder group to address alone.
As a European industry association, Euralarm provides a platform where manufacturers, service providers, national associations, policymakers, and technical experts can exchange knowledge and develop common approaches. We contribute industry expertise to European policy discussions and support the development of practical, risk-based solutions that can be implemented effectively by infrastructure operators.
In relation to the Critical Entities Resilience Directive, Euralarm actively promotes awareness of the role that fire safety and security technologies play in resilience planning. The Directive highlights the need for critical entities to prepare for, withstand, respond to, and recover from a broad range of risks, including natural disasters, sabotage, and hybrid threats.
Euralarm supports this objective by facilitating dialogue between industry and authorities, contributing technical expertise, and encouraging the use of harmonised standards and best practices. We also help ensure that regulatory frameworks remain practical, technology-neutral, and innovation-friendly.
Importantly, resilience should not be viewed purely as a compliance exercise. It is a continuous process that requires cooperation, information exchange, and long-term investment across the entire ecosystem.
Q: Looking ahead, what should be the key priorities for European stakeholders to ensure that fire safety and security systems remain embedded as strategic components of critical infrastructure protection strategies over the coming decade?
Peter Mita
Over the coming decade, Europe should focus on several key priorities.
First, resilience must remain a strategic and board-level issue for critical infrastructure operators. Fire safety and security systems should be recognised not as isolated technical installations, but as essential operational capabilities that support continuity, safety, and societal stability.
Second, Europe needs continued investment in modern, interoperable, and future-proof technologies. Infrastructure operators require systems that can adapt to evolving threats, integrate securely with digital platforms and support data-driven decision-making.
Third, cybersecurity and physical security must be addressed together. As infrastructures become more connected, the distinction between physical and digital threats is increasingly blurred. A holistic resilience approach is therefore essential.
Fourth, skills and competence development will be critical. Technology alone is not sufficient; resilient infrastructures also depend on qualified professionals, effective maintenance, and robust organisational processes.
Finally, Europe should continue strengthening harmonised standards, cross-border cooperation and public–private dialogue. The resilience of critical infrastructures is fundamentally linked to Europe’s economic stability, public safety, and strategic autonomy. Ensuring that fire safety and security systems remain central to resilience planning will therefore be essential for the continent’s future competitiveness and security.