NATO ENSEC COE personnel participated in the planning conference for the Tabletop Exercise Coherent Resilience 2019

NATO Energy Security Centre of Excellence and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) have started preparation for a joint tabletop exercise Coherent Resilience 2019 (CORE19). The Initial Planning Conference (IPC) was held in Ispra site of the JRC on January 15-16. The event was welcomed by Dr. Marcelo Masera, Head of Unit for Energy Security, Distribution and Markets of the Directorate C: Energy, Transport and Climate. In his opening speech, Mr. Masera stressed the importance of cooperation between EU and NATO institutions. Being the European Commission's science and knowledge service, the JRC will contribute to the execution of CORE19 with its long-standing expertise in energy security and modelling of energy systems.

The CORE19 tabletop exercise will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania on May 14-16 and constitutes as part of the efforts aimed at increasing the resilience of gas supply in the Baltic States by testing the regulatory framework, emergency supply procedures and solidarity measures foreseen by the EU Regulation 2017/1938 on security of gas supply. In addition, the CORE19 tabletop exercise will provide a platform for testing preparedness for cyber-attacks and strategic crisis communication.

The IPC in Ispra was attended by 16 participants from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the USA. The participants represented the main stakeholders: government officials, gas transmission system operators, academia and crisis management experts. During the conference, the tabletop exercise structure, scenario, participants, evaluation and tentative programme was discussed and drafted. The preparation work will continue and several further meetings will be organized before the main event.