Bucharest to host a Cybersecurity Competence Centre

The new centre was approved by the European Council on 20 April

The EU plans to create a Cybersecurity Competence Centre to combine investments in cybersecurity science, technology, and industrial growth in order to improve the security of the internet and other vital network and information systems. The European Union Council approved the legislation creating the Centre and the network on 20 April. This will be accompanied by the European Parliament's final approval.

The new organisation, which will be headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, will primarily channel cybersecurity-related support from Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme. The 'European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology, and Research Competence Centre' (as is its full name) will collaborate with a network of member-state-designated national coordination centres.

Mariana Vieira da Silva, Portuguese Minister of State for the Presidency, commented on the new centre: “The new Cybersecurity Competence Centre and network will play a key role in helping secure the digital infrastructure so many of us use every day for work and leisure, as well as information systems and networks in vital areas such as health, transport, energy, financial markets and banking systems. It will also bolster the global competitiveness of the EU's cybersecurity industry, SMEs in particular, and strengthen our leadership and strategic autonomy in the cybersecurity domain.”

To bring together businesses, academia and research organisations

The Competence Centre will closely cooperate with the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). The Centre will also bring together the key European stakeholders, including business, academic and research organisations and other related civil society associations, to form a cybersecurity competence group, in order to strengthen and spread cybersecurity expertise across the EU.

The Council's position has been adopted at first reading as a result of today's meeting, which was conducted in accordance with written procedure. The legal act must now be adopted in the second reading by the European Parliament before it can be published in the EU Official Journal. The regulation will go into effect 20 days after it has been released.