The permanent ambassadors of the Member States to the EU (Coreper) will hold discussions in the Political and Security Committee (PSC) on Tuesday 15 February regarding the large-scale cyber attack simulation exercise which has been being conducted since 8 January 2022.
As a reminder, this exercise involves two Member States that are directly affected by a cyber attack and have some of their critical operators affected. Other Member States, which are not directly affected, are experiencing significant socio-economic impacts (see EUROPE 12880/9).
The EU Member States had already discussed the issue on Friday 11 February in the framework of the Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues (HWPCI).
At the HWPCI, the Member States had to give their respective assessments of the development of the situation, while at the same time judging the contributions made by the Cyber Crisis Liaison Organisation Network (‘CyCLONe’) and the EU Integrated Political Crisis Response arrangements (IPCR).
In addition, Member States had also taken stock of the various options presented by the European External Action Service (EEAS) and discussed the possibility of using some of the measures from the cyber diplomacy toolbox (see EUROPE 11811/27).
The permanent ambassadors of the Member States will try to explain on Tuesday 15 February why they preferred some of these measures to others.
The final stage of this simulation exercise, which involves a gradual increase in the level of severity, will take place on 21 February. A comprehensive report will be produced in March.
See the document: https: //aeur.eu/f/bv (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)