On Monday 2 October, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said that coordination at European level was essential for threats on the internet.
"The responsibility of national defence belongs, and continues to belong, essentially to our member states, but when the threat runs on the internet, coordination at the European level is essential", she said at a conference in Brussels. "We are all affected, in Europe and beyond, and we all need to mobilise with the means and the resources at our disposal (...) We cannot do this alone, and we are not doing this alone: our coordination with member states (...) is constant, and we have strong and important partnerships, starting with NATO", Mogherini said in her speech.
She stated that it is important to understand the threat and respond to it, to react to attacks but also to prevent them, to use capabilities that already exist while developing new ones alongside, and to counter fake news making sure that the real news reaches citizens.
Mogherini added that to improve the EU's situational awareness of these threats, the EU had created the Hybrid Fusion Cell (against hybrid threats), inside the European Union’s Intelligence Centre. "The Hybrid Fusion Cell has already distributed some 80 classified analyses on hybrid threats, to support decision makers in their job", she said. This cell "collects and analyses warnings from the European institutions, from member states and from our partners", she stated. The Hybrid Fusion Cell has the capability to connect the dots, and find the 'fil rouge' between different attacks. This work is critically important to prepare the ground for action – be it national or collective at European level", she added.
According to Mogherini, "an essential contribution to [the EU's] capacity to respond to crises will come from the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats", which is based in Helsinki, and on the Steering Board of which the EU and NATO will sit as observers. The centre was inaugurated on 2 October and will focus in particular on research, training, education and exercises.
Mogherini also underlined development of the partnership between the EU and NATO, especially through coordinated exercises (see EUROPE 11873).
The EU is working on developing the capabilities needed. Among other things, this is through the European Defence Agency's review of the Capability Development Plan to ensure that the key capability developments required to counter hybrid threats are integrated in the new EU capability development priorities by spring next year. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)