The report provides detailed analysis of the evolution and exiting policies of the EU in the field of the critical infrastructure (CI) protection and resilience as well as structured assessment of how CI related policies are adopted and implemented in selected EU Member States and candidate countries. To structure the comparative analysis of the national policies and institutions it proposes an analytical framework based on the policy implementation and compliance with EU norms literature focusing on the threat landscape, policy and institutional context as well as incentives and capacities for implementing CI related policies. This allows to provide an assessment of the current state of CI related policies in three selected EU Member States and three candidate countries which is based on original material collected for the purpose of this report, including primary and secondary sources. The conclusions and recommendations section elaborates on the differences and similarities of national CI related policies as well as challenges and opportunities for their alignment taking into the functional needs originating from existing interdependencies as well as specificities of national contexts. They also illustrate the ways and means of further contributions of the EU, in particular, the European Commission in advancing the goals of CI related policies and their alignment in the enlarging EU and its neighbourhood.