The call comes as EU leaders are set to discuss a plan aimed at mobilising €800 billion on defence and security.
Civil and military cooperation on cybersecurity needs beefing up to confront ongoing threats faced by EU member states, Poland’s Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said at the informal meeting of telecom ministers in Warsaw on Wednesday.
“These worlds cannot be apart,” he said, adding that his own country – which is chairing the EU meetings in the first half of this year – is at the frontline of “fighting thousands of cyber threats daily.”
“We have more and more attacks against critical infrastructure, and other member states too. We need to invest and exchange information,” Gawkowski added.
The remarks come as EU heads of state are set to discuss, during a special meeting in Brussels on Thursday, a five-point response plan, dubbed “REARM Europe”, proposed by the EU Commission earlier this week. The plan aims to mobilise around €800 billion over the next four years, the bulk will come from the 27 national governments increasing their spending on defence and security.
When asked whether cybersecurity can benefit from this, Gawkowski said that the funds “largely speaking” also affect cyber, “the first stage of the war is hybrid.”
Estonia’s Liisa Pakosta, Minister for Justice and Digital Affairs, said that trust and cooperation between member states needs to be improved.
“We would like to see much more trust, willingness, as in the way we work in the military field. We misunderstand the threat that cyber issues have, we don’t take it as a bombing, but it is that, it is a physical threat.”
Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said at the joint press conference that the telecom ministers’ meeting comes at a crucial moment.
“We see that member states and the EU institutions continue to be targeted. Hybrid attacks require more coordination,” Virkkunen said. She added that the ministers’ discussion would feed into the Commission white paper on defence, to be presented two weeks from now.
In February, the European Commission presented a proposal to ensure an effective and efficient response to large-scale cyber incidents. The proposed blueprint – discussed today by the ministers – updates the comprehensive EU framework for Cybersecurity Crisis Management and maps the relevant EU actors, outlining their roles throughout the entire crisis lifecycle.
It also published a recommendation on the security and resilience of submarine cable infrastructures, used for telecommunication, in the wake on ongoing incidents such as in the Baltic Sea.
