As we now rely on digital services for almost every activity in our daily lives, they need to be available, dependable and secure. But can the EU collectively achieve some level of cybersecurity autonomy, or is it destined to tailgate U.S. and Asia?
After an extended period of fragmentation, the EU is now coming together and raising its game in cybersecurity technology development and digital sovereignty, while attempting to preserve its intrinsic diversity.
Back in 2019, in a briefing paper, the European Court of Auditors warned of fragmentation and a lack of coordination in cybersecurity. This message echoed that of the Commission proposal for a regulation in 2018, which reported the existence of more than 660 centres of expertise in cybersecurity across the EU. These players work at national and European levels frequently developing activity in an uncoordinated way. According to the same paper, this fragmentation in skills, capacity and investment is also cluttered by the absence of a dedicated budget to fund cybersecurity in the EU, and the inability of most member states to identify their own cybersecurity funding.