On 30 October 2024 Sauli Niinistö presented his report in Brussels. The former Finnish president had been commissioned by Ursula von der Leyen to write it. The question: how does Europe become crisis-proof, in civilian and in military terms?
The report is called "Safer Together". It runs to 164 pages. And it contains one sentence that concerns every household in the EU.
Every citizen should be able to look after themselves for at least 72 hours in a crisis.
Three days. No power from the socket. No water from the tap. No supermarket. No card payments.
That sounds like a well-stocked pantry. For a fortune, the question is a different one. What can you get at when the systems stop? That is the subject of our overview of crisis preparedness for the wealthy. First, the report itself: what it says, and what it means for your money.
What the report recommends
The recommendation sits in the chapter on citizens. The EU is to make sure that households everywhere in the Union are prepared for at least 72 hours of basic self-sufficiency. That is what the report by Sauli Niinistö says, whatever the emergency turns out to be.
What does that mean in practice? The report calls for guidance on stockpiling. On evacuation. On chemical, biological and nuclear incidents. On access to medical care. On schooling in an emergency.
The recommendations are to be tailored locally. The report points to differences in population, climate and threat. And it proposes a shared collection of guidance, multilingual and available to every citizen. National advice is to become common or coordinated guidance for the whole Union.
It proposes coordinated information campaigns. It proposes a European preparedness day. And it wants crisis preparedness on the school curriculum.
The report supplies its own justification. It cites a Eurobarometer survey from 2024. 58 per cent of respondents do not feel well prepared for disasters. Only 46 per cent would know what to do in an emergency.
Niinistö names Italy and Sweden as models. Italy has a campaign called "Io Non Rischio". Sweden has a brochure titled "If Crisis or War Comes" and an annual preparedness week.
The report does not bind the United Kingdom, which left the EU in 2020. London has nonetheless arrived at the same order of magnitude. Its government campaign Be Ready asks households to keep three days' worth of supplies: bottled water and non-perishable food for three days, and cash in coins and notes in case electronic payments or cash machines are disrupted.
Von der Leyen: preparedness is a matter for the whole of society
At the presentation, von der Leyen made clear where things are heading. In her statement of 30 October 2024 she announced a strategy for a Preparedness Union. The new Commission was to present it.
Her key term is "whole-of-society". In other words: the state, business, civil society and every individual citizen. In her own words: "preparedness cannot be built in silos."
That is the core. Preparedness is no longer to be the job of the fire brigade and civil protection alone. It is to run through every area. And it is to involve every individual.
At one point the report goes further still. It notes that many member states are exploring new approaches. Not only conscription. But also other "legal obligations citizens have to contribute to security and preparedness". Duties in law, then, for citizens to contribute to security and preparedness.
What such duties would look like, the report leaves open. It names no specific measure. But it sets the frame in which they will be discussed.
Preparedness as a test for every law
The report treats preparedness not as a single project but as a principle. Its term for this is "Preparedness by Design".
What it means: every EU institution, body and agency is to build preparedness in from the start. To that end the report proposes a mandatory "Security and Preparedness Check". It is to feed into future impact assessments. Existing laws are to be stress-tested.
On top of that comes an operational crisis hub at EU level. It is to pool information and coordinate the response in an emergency. Who does what when several sectors are hit at once? That is to be settled in advance.
On its own, this sounds like good administration. But it shifts a weight, and permanently. When every law is tested against the crisis, the crisis becomes the yardstick of every law. And the question of what is permitted in an emergency moves into ordinary times.
Stockpiles, inventories and the real-time view
The second big block concerns stocks. Not the ones in your cellar. The strategic ones.
The report recommends an EU stockpiling strategy. Public and private reserves are to be coordinated. Food, energy, critical raw materials, equipment, medicines.
Then comes a sentence worth reading closely. The EU is to strengthen its ability to monitor in real time critical supply chains, production capacity and "public and private stocks" of selected goods. Public and private stocks.
Added to this are criteria for the coordinated release of emergency reserves. And the proposal to build temporary emergency provisions into legislation. The report's model is the state aid exemptions of the pandemic. In future they are not to come on the spur of the moment, but in a structured way and planned ahead.
On its own, that is administrative logic. But it describes a power that is meant to grow: the state is to know where what is stored. And it is to have rules under which it disposes of those stocks in a crisis.
Your savings are in the report too
A third block concerns money. Preparedness costs. The report asks who pays.
One answer: the EU budget. Part of the funds is to be ring-fenced for preparedness. The other answer: citizens' savings.
In its own words the report recommends: "Leverage private capital for preparedness action by providing investment opportunities for EU citizens' savings." Private capital, then, is to be mobilised for preparedness. Through investment products for citizens' savings.
The proposals are specific. A European standard for preparedness bonds, modelled on green bonds. Exchange-traded funds with a preparedness theme. Dedicated indices for defence and critical infrastructure.
For now this is an offer. Voluntary. But the direction is clear: private wealth is being planned in as a source of funding for state objectives. An offer is a political decision. A quota, an investment mandate or a duty would be one too. The difference lies not in the technology, only in the next resolution.
Payments as the weak spot
The report also speaks openly about the most vulnerable point of everyday life. The economy depends on reliable payments, from the individual citizen to the whole Union.
Then it says: "Even a short interruption or breach of confidentiality of financial data would have broad societal and economic consequences."
Even a short interruption, then, would have broad consequences. The report names cyber attacks and ransomware. It names state actors and criminals. And it explicitly counts banks and financial market infrastructure among the sectors that are decisive for the stability of society.
In other words: the EU itself reckons that card payments and transfers can fail. Hence the 72 hours. Anyone without cash and supplies at that moment comes to a standstill.
72 hours are the wrong yardstick for a fortune
For a household, three days is a sensible measure. For a fortune it is not.
A power cut is over in hours. A banking crisis is not. The precedents in the eurozone are documented.
Cyprus 2013. Capital controls applied from 28 March 2013. Cash withdrawals were limited to €300 per day per bank. Transfers abroad needed approval. The Commission approved the controls on the same day. They were lifted in full only in April 2015. That is just over two years, not three days.
Greece 2015. At the end of June 2015 the banks stayed shut for three weeks. €60 a day was allowed. The Commission relied on "overriding reasons of general public interest". The last restrictions went in September 2019. That is more than four years.
Both cases have something in common. The restrictions came overnight. By law or by decree. And they hit precisely those whose wealth sat entirely inside the affected system.
That is exactly the risk the Niinistö report describes: disruptions that seize the whole system. The EU is planning for the first 72 hours. For the time after that, you have to plan yourself.
What this means for your wealth
The good news: preparing a fortune follows the same logic as preparing a household. You need reserves that do not hang on a single system.
Cash. It works when the terminal does not. The report itself says why: because payments can fail. A cash reserve for weeks, not days, is the first step. It does not sit in the bank, but where you can reach it without opening hours.
Physical assets outside the banking system. Gold and silver have no account and no counterparty. What matters is where they are kept. A safe deposit box at your own bank is shut precisely when the bank is shut. Why the place of storage decides the protection is set out in our overview of precious metals as protective assets.
Accounts outside the affected currency area. When controls take hold in the eurozone, they take hold at the edge of the system. An account outside the EU lies beyond that edge. For readers in the UK, Norway or Sweden the logic is the same with their own banking system: not everything should sit inside one system. Which countries come into question is set out in our overview of bank accounts outside the EU.
The right moment is beforehand
The Niinistö report is not a law. It is a recommendation to the Commission. But von der Leyen announced that it would guide the Commission's work in the years ahead.
The pattern is familiar. First comes the report. Then the strategy. Then the legal acts. And at some point the emergency in which powers are used that were adopted long before.
The crisis measures in Cyprus and Greece were not announced before they took effect. They were proclaimed when they already applied. Whoever acts only then acts too late.
That holds for each of the three levels in the report. For the stocks that are to become visible in real time. For the savings that are to be mobilised for state objectives. And for the emergency rules that are to be written into law in advance. None of it has been adopted today. But all of it has been described today.
The EU asks you for 72 hours of self-sufficiency. That is a start. For your wealth a different yardstick applies: staying able to act, even when the system is not.
Postscript (as of 23 September 2026)
Since the post, the Commission has adopted the 72-hour goal. On 26 March 2025 the Commission and the High Representative presented the Preparedness Union Strategy, with 30 key actions and an action plan. It states explicitly that the population should keep essential supplies for at least 72 hours. Added to this are an EU preparedness day, a public-private task force and emergency protocols with businesses intended to secure the rapid availability of essential goods and services in a crisis. What this means for a fortune is set out in our overview of crisis preparedness.