European Cyber Resilience Act: Council Experts Continue Discussions on 18 January; ITRE Committee Confirms GUE/NGL Shadow Rapporteur

This week, Council experts will continue their technical discussions of the Cyber Resilience Act.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

- The Council’s Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues is scheduled to meet on 18 January 2023. Draft documents available.

- The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE) confirmed the appointment of MEP Marc Botenga (GUE/NGL, Belgium) as a Shadow Rapporteur for the file.

ANALYSIS

Council

On 18 January, Council experts of the Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues will meet to continue their examination and exchange of views on the proposal for a Cyber Resilience Act.

In particular, the Council experts will discuss the general provisions and scope of the text:

• Scope and General Provisions (Articles 1-4 and corresponding recitals),
• The proposed obligations of economic operators and essential requirements (Articles 5,10-17, corresponding recitals, and Annexes I and II).

This will serve as the first discussion on the file at the Working Party level under the new Swedish Presidency.

Regarding the scope, the Presidency has issued a revised compromise proposal with minor changes, but specifies the definition of recall and withdrawal of a product with digital elements. The definitions of Software and SaaS are amended as well.

The horizontal working party will follow the Commission approach when it come to the obligations of economic operators and essential. The Presidency is not expected to modify the text at this stage.

European Parliament

As co-legislator, the European Parliament’s ITRE Committee confirmed that MEP Marc Botenga (GUE/NGL, Belgium) was chosen to serve as a Shadow Rapporteur on the file for the GUE/NGL political group.

MEP Botenga will now work in close cooperation with Rapporteur Nicola Danti (Renew Europe, Italy), as well as the other Shadow Rapporteurs on the file over the coming months in order to prepare the Committee’s draft Report on the proposal.