NATO–EU Strategic Priority: Maritime Security & Undersea Infrastructure Protection

This short analytical note frames NATO–EU Strategic Priority as a question of European strategic autonomy, where a capability becomes strategically and financially relevant through alignment with recognised priorities, not the technology alone. Maritime security and the protection of undersea infrastructure have become central tests of how resilient European and allied democracies really are. Gas pipelines on the seabed, fibre-optic cables carrying almost all international data, and the dense clusters of offshore platforms and wind farms form an invisible but essential layer of the European security and economic system. The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and subsequent cable incidents in the Baltic and North Sea have shown that these assets are no longer exposed only to accidents or natural risks, but to deliberate, covert hostile action. At the same time, Russian submarine and “research” activities close to critical routes, the rapid spread of unmanned underwater vehicles and the integration of cyber operations with physical sabotage have widened the spectrum of possible threats. Why this capability becomes strategically and financially relevant is developed in full in the original DFM publication on DFM Analysis.