Member States are not fully prepared to give up their sovereignty over cybersecurity. This is reflected in a new compromise presented by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU on 6 February on the draft regulation establishing the European Competence and the Network of National Coordination Centres.
The text, which has since been discussed by Member States' experts on 8, 14 and 21 February, reduces the European Commission's presence in the Network of National Coordination Centres (2 members, instead of 5). It also refuses to place by default the seat of the future cooperation centre (renamed "European Industrial, Technological and Research Centre") in Brussels, leaving this choice open to negotiations between Member States.
This document is based on a legislative proposal presented in September 2018 to share and share cybersecurity research capabilities and results and to deploy innovative cybersecurity solutions (see EUROPE 12095). In particular, the draft Regulation proposes to establish: (a) at EU level, a European Centre of Industrial, Technological and Research Competence; (b) at Member State level, national coordination centres; (c) at actor level, a community of expertise on cybersecurity. The Committee on Industry in the European Parliament (ITRE) gave its opinion on this text on 19 February (see EUROPE 12197).
The compromise of the Romanian Presidency of the Council also addresses the issue of financing the European Centre. Instead of joint financing, as proposed by the Commission, the document suggests a voluntary contribution by Member States to actions to acquire capacity and infrastructure. In particular, it states that the Centre's resources should come mainly from contributions from the EU budget to cover its administrative and operational costs. Member States should make additional contributions towards the administrative costs of the centre in proportion to their voluntary contribution to the acquisition actions (and, indeed, to the benefits they derive from them). They could provide voluntary financial or in-kind contributions towards operational costs.
For the rest, the text provides for 27 members of the Industrial and Scientific Advisory Committee, instead of a maximum of 16. It states, in recital 8b, that "entities from all Member States will be eligible for financial support from the Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes". This will be regardless whether or not a given entity is located in a Member State which is a contributing Member State.
Further discussions in the Council working group are planned for 5 March. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)