MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (‘ITRE’) discussed on Thursday 2 June the Court of Auditors of the European Union’s report on the lack of preparedness of EU institutions, bodies and agencies for cyber security threats (see EUROPE 12921/15).
“We must protect our institutions, especially in the current circumstances of conflict. With the interconnection of each system and institution, having a strategy, policies, controls and training would be a minimum requirement”, summarised Mikuláš Peksa (Greens/EFA, Czechia).
For several MEPs, like Eva Kaili (S&D, Greece), the focus should also be on smaller entities, insisting that disparities exist between smaller EU organisations and agencies on the one hand, and larger ones such as the European Commission or the Parliament on the other.
In addition, the issue of the number of entities responsible for organisational security was also raised. “More and more bodies are being created as well as new centres for cyber security. Wouldn’t it be better to simplify, to unify under the aegis of ENISA, for example?”, asked Evžen Tošenovský (ECR, Czechia), also pointing out that qualified personnel in the cyber security sector are “hard to find”.
As a reminder, the European Court of Auditors published its special report on the state of preparedness of the EU institutions, bodies and agencies on 29 March. The report pointed out, among other things, that too few resources were allocated to this issue and called on the European Commission to, among other things, “propose a legislative text that would establish common binding rules” and increase resources.
See the Court of Auditors’ report: https://aeur.eu/f/10w (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)