Germany plans to better protect its critical infrastructure with a new law on Thursday as surging tensions with Russia stoke fears of sabotage attacks and other national security threats. The measures cover facilities that provide critical services to more than 500,000 people in sectors including energy, water, food, health, transport, IT, telecommunications, financial services and waste disposal. READ ALSO: Just how vulnerable is Germany’s infrastructure to attacks and sabotage? Many security experts have welcomed the new critical infrastructure bill in principle, but others have harshly criticised it as too little too late. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has now vowed to turn Germany's army into Europe's largest convention force, but Schulz said building infrastructure resilience is "at least as important as tanks and drones, if not more so".