On Wednesday 17 April, in the absence of an agreement with the Council in this parliamentary term, the European Parliament chose to 'secure' its position at first reading of the draft regulation allowing the pooling of expertise with regard to cybersecurity (see EUROPE 12226/16).
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).
Although the interinstitutional negotiations had started in a calm atmosphere on 13 March (see EUROPE 12216/27), they quickly faltered on the link between the new regulation and the financial instruments concerned, namely the Digital Europe programme (€1.9 billion) and the Horizon Europe programme (€1 billion). In line with their general approach, Member States refuse to be obliged to contribute financially to the new structures, whereas the financial instruments concerned require co-financing.
The chief negotiator of the European Parliament, Pirate MEP Julia Reda (Germany) told EUROPE: “The European Parliament immediately recognized what an important role the Cybersecurity Competence Centre and Network would play in how cybersecurity would be designed over the coming years. During the negotiations between Parliament and Council, the political guidance was also one of the points that we were closest on finding an agreement on", she said. And to continue: "It was probably due to the ambitious timing and the quick procedure, that Member States had to ask the Council presidency for more time to allow to check back with their capitals on open questions regarding the financing of the Centre". (Sophie Petitjean)