Overview
- Lawmakers are scheduled to take up the bill at 12:15 local time, with a vote expected to pass today.
- The draft targets operators whose outages could affect more than 500,000 people and requires vulnerability assessments, incident reporting with detailed follow-ups, staff exercises and backup power provisions.
- Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt tied the push to recent sabotage and announced a €1 million reward for information on the arson that cut power to over 100,000 Berlin residents.
- Business groups warn of added burdens without guaranteed gains in security, and critics including Green lawmaker Konstantin von Notz call the plan late and insufficient, questioning the 500,000-person threshold.
- Defense Minister Boris Pistorius cites a rise in hybrid threats such as cyber intrusions, cut Baltic Sea cables and drone espionage, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz elevates infrastructure resilience as a national priority.