The vote to select the seat of the future European Cyber Security Competence Centre will take place on 9 December alongside the meeting of the Committee of Deputy Permanent Representatives. Member States have until 6 November to officially submit their applications, says a working document seen by EUROPE.
Two years of negotiations on this text already
For over two years the co-legislators have been discussing the modalities of the regulation aimed at pooling European expertise on cybersecurity (see EUROPE 12095/18, 12437/4). However, as the EU Council mandate leaves this issue to one side, the negotiations have not covered the future seat of the Agency (see EUROPE 12537/14).
The EU Council considers that the selection of the host country for the new organisation falls within its competence. While the European Commission initially proposed Brussels, other countries now seem to be in the running (Luxembourg, Spain, Romania, Poland, Italy, Greece and, more discreetly, Portugal).
Seat selection procedure agreed
In this context, the German EU Council Presidency is proposing that Member States formalise their interest and fill in an application form.
It specifies that seven criteria will be taken into account in the selection process, similar to those applied at the time of the relocation of the agencies transferred as a result of Brexit (the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Agency), namely: (1) the date of availability of the premises; (2) the accessibility of the location; (3) nearby schools for the children of the staff; (4) access to the labour market, social security and health care for the families of the staff ; (5) connectivity, security and interoperability of IT networks; (6) existence of a cyber security ecosystem; (7) geographical balance in the distribution of EU bodies and agencies.
The working document points out that applications can be submitted until 6 November. The Commission will then report to the Member States and Parliament on the various applications and their suitability under the range of criteria.
The Deputy Permanent Representatives will then be invited to vote by secret ballot alongside their meeting on 9 December. For this purpose, several rounds could be organised until a candidate collects more than half of the votes counted. The document states that the outcome of the vote will be confirmed by common agreement of the Member States’ representatives, which will then be forwarded to the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)