NIS2 Article 4. Sector-specific Union legal acts

This Directive sets out the baseline for cybersecurity risk-management measures and reporting obligations across the sectors that fall within its scope. In order to avoid the fragmentation of cybersecurity provisions of Union legal acts, where further sector-specific Union legal acts pertaining to cybersecurity risk-management measures and reporting obligations are considered to be necessary to ensure a high level of cybersecurity across the Union, the Commission should assess whether such further provisions could be stipulated in an implementing act under this Directive. Should such an implementing act not be suitable for that purpose, sector-specific Union legal acts could contribute to ensuring a high level of cybersecurity across the Union, while taking full account of the specificities and complexities of the sectors concerned. To that end, this Directive does not preclude the adoption of further sector-specific Union legal acts addressing cybersecurity risk-management measures and reporting obligations that take due account of the need for a comprehensive and consistent cybersecurity framework. This Directive is without prejudice to the existing implementing powers that have been conferred on the Commission in a number of sectors, including transport and energy.

Where a sector-specific Union legal act contains provisions requiring essential or important entities to adopt cybersecurity risk-management measures or to notify significant incidents, and where those requirements are at least equivalent in effect to the obligations laid down in this Directive, those provisions, including on supervision and enforcement, should apply to such entities. If a sector-specific Union legal act does not cover all entities in a specific sector falling within the scope of this Directive, the relevant provisions of this Directive should continue to apply to the entities not covered by that act.

Where provisions of a sector-specific Union legal act require essential or important entities to comply with reporting obligations that are at least equivalent in effect to the reporting obligations laid down in this Directive, the consistency and effectiveness of the handling of incident notifications should be ensured. To that end, the provisions relating to incident notifications of the sector-specific Union legal act should provide the CSIRTs, the competent authorities or the single points of contact on cybersecurity (single points of contact) under this Directive with an immediate access to the incident notifications submitted in accordance with the sector-specific Union legal act. In particular, such immediate access can be ensured if incident notifications are being forwarded without undue delay to the CSIRT, the competent authority or the single point of contact under this Directive. Where appropriate, Member States should put in place an automatic and direct reporting mechanism that ensures systematic and immediate sharing of information with the CSIRTs, the competent authorities or the single points of contact concerning the handling of such incident notifications. For the purpose of simplifying reporting and of implementing the automatic and direct reporting mechanism, Member States could, in accordance with the sector-specific Union legal act, use a single entry point.

Sector-specific Union legal acts which provide for cybersecurity risk-management measures or reporting obligations that are at least equivalent in effect to those laid down in this Directive could provide that the competent authorities under such acts exercise their supervisory and enforcement powers in relation to such measures or obligations with the assistance of the competent authorities under this Directive. The competent authorities concerned could establish cooperation arrangements for that purpose. Such cooperation arrangements could specify, inter alia, the procedures concerning the coordination of supervisory activities, including the procedures of investigations and on-site inspections in accordance with national law, and a mechanism for the exchange of relevant information on supervision and enforcement between the competent authorities, including access to cyber-related information requested by the competent authorities under this Directive.

Where sector-specific Union legal acts require or provide incentives to entities to notify significant cyber threats, Member States should also encourage the sharing of significant cyber threats with the CSIRTs, the competent authorities or the single points of contact under this Directive, in order to ensure an enhanced level of those bodies’ awareness of the cyber threat landscape and to enable them to respond effectively and in a timely manner should the significant cyber threats materialise.

Future sector-specific Union legal acts should take due account of the definitions and the supervisory and enforcement framework laid down in this Directive.