The prospect of concluding an interinstitutional agreement on the pooling of expertise in cybersecurity under this European Parliament term is gradually fading away.
After the difficulties encountered by the Member States, the trilogue negotiation meeting, which was scheduled to take place on Thursday, 28 March, was postponed indefinitely (see EUROPE 12223/25).
The technical meeting, which was supposed to replace it, was also cancelled. Member States are now planning to meet during a working meeting on Tuesday 2 April. They are waiting for clarification from the European Commission, in particular on the competence centre.
The draft regulation, presented in September 2018, envisages the creation of three new structures: - a European centre of industrial, technological and research competence at EU level; - a network of national coordination centres at national level; and - a community of cybersecurity expertise at stakeholders’ level.
These structures should enable the pooling and sharing of cybersecurity research capacities and results obtained as well as the deployment of innovative cybersecurity solutions (see EUROPE 12095/18).
Member States request clarification
But a large number of Member States are wondering about the legal nature of the future competence centre: is it a joint venture, a European partnership, an EU agency or something else?
They also want more assurances from the European Commission on how the European budget after 2020 will finance such a structure. According to the legislative proposal, the new centre will benefit from the funds of the Digital Europe programme (€1.9 billion) and the Horizon Europe programme (€1 billion). But the link with the Horizon Europe programme would be a problem, a source close to the file informed us.
Differences on national co-financing and missions
Beyond these requests for clarification, Parliament and the Council of the EU also have significant differences of opinion on certain fundamental aspects of the regulation.
The two co-legislating European institutions do not agree on the level of co-financing by the Member States. The Council of the EU considers that this co-financing should be zero.
Nor do the Parliament and the Council of the EU have the same vision regarding the missions of the new centre. Parliament wants it to offer real added value.
Finally, there are also differences of opinion on the role of the Commission (which has a veto power over the Governing Board). Member States would like to reduce it as much as possible.
The meeting of the Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues, scheduled for 2 April, should enable Member States to address these issues. Depending on the progress of the discussions, the issue could be on the agenda of the meeting of Member States' ambassadors to the EU on Wednesday 3 April. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)