Cybersecurity Competence Centre: latest developments

The Centre has a seat: Bucharest

Yesterday [9 November], Member States voted on the location of the future European Cybersecurity Competence Centre. The Romanian capital, Bucharest, won the vote.

Seven European cities were competing:  Brussels, Bucharest, Munich, Warsaw, Vilnius, Luxembourg and León.

Cybersecurity calls will start before the setup of the Centre

The future Cybersecurity Competence Centre will distribute the cybersecurity parts of EU funding programmes, including Digital Europe and Horizon Europe. These two funding programmes will start next year for a duration of seven years.

However, the Council and the European Parliament are still negotiating the file. Another round of political negotiations will take place this Friday. Therefore, the Cybersecurity Competence Centre will not be established before several months.

At the Convergence Conference, MEP Rasmus Andresen (Greens/Pirate, Germany) indicated that there were still diverging views on voting rights and budget. The European Parliament and the Commission want Member States to financially contribute to the administrative costs of the Centre. Member States would favour a voluntary contribution. The European Parliament sees the Centre as more than a structure distributing money, the Centre will head a community of stakeholders. It will have an Advisory Board gathering civil society, academia and industry. Rasmus Andresen explained that open source and free software will be included in the work of the Centre.

Miguel Gonzalez-Sancho, Head of Unit at DG CNECT, European Commission, observed that a deal should be reached soon. However, it will take time to setup the structure, there will be a transition period. The European Commission will assume the responsibilities of the Centre during this transition period.

This means that the Commission will start launching the cybersecurity calls for proposal before the setup of the Centre. 4 cybersecurity calls will be launched next year in the framework of Digital Europe.

If you have any questions on this issue, please do not hesitate to contact Camille Dornier - Policy Manager: camille.dornier@eurosmart.com