Annex I and Annex II: which sectors
Two lists. Annex I holds the sectors of high criticality — energy, transport, banking, financial market infrastructure, health, drinking water, waste water, digital infrastructure, ICT service management, public administration and space. Annex II holds other critical sectors: postal and courier, waste management, chemicals, food, certain manufacturing, digital providers and research.
Why it is like this
Being on a list is what makes the obligation objective. Rather than asking each organisation to judge its own importance, the directive names the sectors where a failure propagates — and then lets size do the rest of the filtering.
Not to be confused with
A list of companies. The annexes name *sectors and the kinds of entity within them*, and the national transposition decides exactly which organisations that catches. Your sector appearing is the start of the question, not the end.
In practice
A road-freight company sits in transport, Annex I. A food-processing plant sits in Annex II. Both can be in scope; which annex they are in feeds into whether they end up essential or important.
Source: Directive (EU) 2022/2555 (NIS2) — Annexes I and II. Read on .
Odd one out Check yourself
Three of these sectors are in Annex I — sectors of high criticality. Which one is in Annex II?
Show the answer
Waste management
Waste management is in Annex II, among the other critical sectors. Drinking water, digital infrastructure and health are all Annex I.