European Cybersecurity Competence Centre: latest developments

On 6 July, MEP Rasmus Andresen (Greens, Germany), rapporteur for the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre, gave a briefing on the current state of play of this legislative file. This briefing took place during a meeting of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) of the European Parliament, which is in the lead for this file.

State of play

The proposal for a Regulation establishing the Centre is currently being negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council. A third trilogue (negotiation round) was held on 25 June. The previous trilogues dated back from the past legislative term, in March 2019. This latest trilogue in June was the opportunity to discuss the new Council’s negotiating mandate, adopted last month.

Diverging views between the European Parliament and the Council

There are discrepancies between the European Parliament and the Council regarding the ambitions of this future Centre. The Council supports the idea of a Centre mostly focused on money allocation from the programmes Digital Europe and Horizon Europe. The European Parliament -including the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs- wants to add more content on the development of cybersecurity. The rapporteur believes that the Centre should also work on open source and standardisation, not only on money distribution.

In addition, Rasmus Andresen is of the opinion that the Centre needs a strong advisory board with a strong participation of civil society and European businesses. This contrasts with the Council’s position, which excludes civil society and business out of the Centre’s structure.

The rapporteur underlined that there is a lot of willingness to get a strong and fast agreement.

Next steps:

September: More discussions, including on the voting rights and the seat of the centre, which are sensitive issues. Start of the real political negotiations.

For any questions on these issues, do not hesitate to contact Camille Dornier, Policy Manager: camille.dornier@eurosmart.com