Europe’s blackouts call for a NATO-level response

In late April, 55 million people across Spain and Portugal were plunged into a sweeping blackout, the worst Europe’s faced in three decades.

An official investigation is underway to determine whether it was cyber sabotage or an internal systems failure. Either way, it marks a turning point for Europe’s energy resilience.

Early findings suggest an outdated Iberian power grid, possibly strained by a surge in renewables, may be to blame. But the message is clear: Europe’s energy infrastructure is dangerously fragile.

For too long, EU policy has focused on mobilising massive renewable energy investments – over $1.13tn through InvestEU and similar programmes – without upgrading the grid to manage these new power flows.

This blackout isn’t an isolated event. Outages in the Canary Islands and storm-related disruptions in the British Isles have exposed how unprepared Europe’s networks are to the shifting climate.

Experts warn that without major infrastructure upgrades costing up to $2.3tn by 2050, blackouts could become a regular feature of European life, long before climate neutrality is reached.

Meanwhile, the spectre of external threats looms even larger. Energy infrastructure has become a frontline in hybrid warfare. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine revealed how attacks on nuclear plants, dams, and grids are used to sow chaos and weaken resistance.

The EU, though not a formal belligerent, has also suffered its own share of assaults. The Kremlin-linked hacking group “Sandworm” has targeted European power grids, and Kremlin agents have been suspected of severing several critical subsea energy and communication cables in the Baltic Sea.

This is why Russia’s reported offer to restart the Nord Stream pipelines as part of peace talks should be viewed as a calculated bid to draw Europe back into energy dependency. These attacks and overtures form a unified strategy: to disrupt Europe’s transition and reassert Russian influence.

This makes clear that energy security must become Europe’s geopolitical imperative. The EU must collaborate with NATO on a unified strategy to protect critical energy systems and accelerate resilience.

Right now, NATO’s energy posture simply lacks teeth. Although energy security is acknowledged as strategic, the response remains largely reactive, limited to contingency planning and scenario exercises. Unlike cyber or space, energy infrastructure isn’t treated as a frontline domain.

Compare this to the United States, where agencies like the Department of Energy and FERC coordinate closely with national security institutions. Japan, too, has embedded energy resilience into its defence doctrine. These countries treat energy resilience as vital to national survival, not just economic planning.

The EU-NATO response must catch up. First, NATO should create a dedicated task force for energy infrastructure protection, combining military, technical and policy expertise. Second, joint EU-NATO exercises should include blackout and sabotage scenarios. Third, intelligence-sharing must become routine, especially in investigations like the Baltic cable attacks.

But security reforms must be backed by investment. Europe’s latest defence renaissance, necessary as it is, has strained public coffers and made it compete with the equally urgent need to revamp our energy infrastructure.

To close this funding gap, Europe must think creatively. One promising avenue lies in partnering with foreign investors, especially Gulf states that are actively seeking stable, strategic returns.

These countries can also bolster Europe’s energy mix in the near term, supplying “firm power”: readily dispatchable fossil fuels and nuclear energy that can compensate when renewables underdeliver. As Europe reduces coal use and Russian gas imports, hydrocarbons and nuclear partnerships with Gulf nations offer a crucial bridge.

Gulf sovereign wealth funds have already demonstrated significant interest in strategic European assets. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is close to completing its $16bn acquisition of Covestro, a German chemical firm whose sustainable output accounts for roughly 5% of Germany’s GDP. ADNOC is also pursuing a $60bn mega-merger with Austria’s OMV to create a global leader in polyolefins.

Meanwhile, Masdar has recently raised $1bn through a green bond listing on the London Stock Exchange, whose proceeds will fund new renewable energy developments, including offshore wind projects in Germany.

These investment projects present critical opportunities for strategic partnerships. The EU should therefore work on updating its foreign investment framework to prioritise and facilitate capital inflows into energy resilience projects, particularly grid modernisation, cyber defences and firm power infrastructure.

This would require aligning regulatory frameworks, reducing bureaucratic hurdles and offering co-financing incentives through mechanisms like the European Investment Bank or the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP). It also means treating foreign energy partnerships with the same seriousness we afford to defence procurements or digital sovereignty.

In a world where blackouts emerge as potential stratagems of war, Europe must secure its energy future with the same seriousness and cooperation as its armed forces.

Put simply, to stay lit, Europe must treat energy as the next frontier of collective defence.

The views expressed in this #CriticalThinking article reflect those of the author(s) and not of Friends of Europe.