The French Presidency of the Council of the EU delivered its draft conclusions to the EU Member States on 29 April on the development of a common EU position on online technologies.
In concrete terms, the text emphasises strengthening cyber resilience and protection capabilities through increased international cooperation and partnerships, inter alia, to deal with cyber attacks.
To this end, the draft conclusions recall that legislation on cyber resilience - to be presented by the European Commission during 2022 - should play a major role.
Furthermore, under the heading of crisis management preparedness, the text calls on the European Commission to propose and implement a new cyber security emergency response fund by the end of the third quarter of 2022.
Furthermore, the text calls for Member States to work with the High Representative to develop a revised version of the implementation guidelines for the EU e-diplomacy toolkit by the end of 2022.
The draft conclusions also call on the European External Action Service to draw up by 2023 - and to “regularly update” - a list of possible EU responses to cyber attacks, “including options for sanctions”.
Finally, the text recalls the importance of achieving technological sovereignty, invites the European Commission to “explore the possibilities of strengthening the cyber security of the suppliers to the EU’s defence technological and industrial base”, and stresses the importance of setting up a programme of cross-community cyber exercises.
See the draft conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/1km (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)