The EU Council bodies are continuing their work on the draft conclusions on the Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade. After the cyber security working group on 1 March, it is now the turn of the Political and Security Committee to take a position on the text, with a view to its approval by the General Affairs Council on 23 March.
The new draft compromise, of which EUROPE has been copied, maintains its support for horizontal legislation to address all relevant aspects of cybersecurity of connected devices, such as availability, integrity and confidentiality (see EUROPE 12649/16).
Echoing the letter co-signed by Germany, Finland, Denmark and Estonia, it reaffirms the importance of reinforcing the ability to make autonomous choices in the area of cybersecurity, with the aim of ensuring the EU’s digital leadership and sustainability. The draft text notes that this includes identifying and reducing strategic dependencies and increasing resilience in the most sensitive industrial ecosystems and in specific areas. This may include, it continues, diversifying production and supply chains, fostering and attracting investment and production in Europe, exploring alternative solutions and circular models and promoting broad industrial cooperation across Member States.
For the rest, these draft conclusions, which follow a European Commission communication of 16 December, reaffirm the commitment to the settlement of international disputes in cyberspace by peaceful means (see EUROPE 12624/1). It also expressed support for the future joint cybersecurity unit promised by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Link to the project: http://bit.ly/3uOSFXA (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)