Representatives from 20 EU Member States gathered last week (20/21 July) in Bratislava for a two-day Cyber Security Cooperation Conference co-organized by the current Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Defence Agency (EDA).
The event was centred around three panels in which participants discussed different aspects of cooperation on cyber defence, starting with the political aspects of cooperation, moving onto public-private sector cooperation, and finishing with the challenges for military-to-military cooperation.
In his speech at the conference, EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq stressed the importance of European cooperation in the cyber defence field. The EDA, he said, is involved in this domain since more than four years when it established a platform for Member States to speak with each other about their requirements in cyber defence and cooperation. “And we can proudly say that within that relatively short time, we have significantly influenced the development of the cyber defence domain in Europe”. “Despite the sensitivities surrounding cyber defence, there is enormous scope for cooperation”, Mr Domecq continued, stressing that the EDA was ready to move forward its role in fostering cooperation on cyber security and defence in all dimensions, even beyond the traditional understanding of military to military cooperation. “Admittedly, we are in many cases in ‘uncharted waters’ but that should not prevent us from starting to navigate those waters. Cyber and Hybrid Threats require comprehensive responses”, he said.
Cyber threats are among the main risks and perils of the last decade, stated Ivan Máčovský, State Secretary at the Slovak Ministry of Defence. Therefore, the priorities of the Slovak EU Presidency are also geared towards consolidating the EU's unity and coherence in this field, he stressed. “It was acknowledged over the course of this conference that cooperation among the EU Member States in this field is of crucial importance, be it at the political or civil-military level. It is equally needed between the public and private sectors,” Mr Máčovský said at the conclusion of the event.
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