On 22 March, the Council of the European Union adopted its Conclusions on the EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade. The Conclusions highlight that cybersecurity is essential for building a resilient, green and digital Europe and outline the new framework for the EU action in the area of resilience, technological sovereignty and leadership.

While the Conclusions dedicate most attention to the work within the EU, they also recognise that international cooperation, external cyber capacity building and cyber diplomacy are vital areas in the implementation of the Strategy.

The Council acknowledges the importance of strengthening international cooperation with partners in order to advance the shared understanding of the cyber threat landscape, to develop dialogues and cooperation mechanisms and to improve information-sharing including through education, training and exercises. The Council welcomes the establishment and implementation of EU CyberNet in order to increase cyber resilience and capacities worldwide and to assist partner countries tackling the growing challenges related to cybersecurity.

The recognition of the EU CyberNet’s role and work encourages us to continue delivering on our goals. Guided by the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, our network will be one of the tools to implement the Conclusions and the Strategy. Our work plan and activities are aimed at improving the coordination, support the Commission services in their work and provide training to partner countries. We rely on our Stakeholder Community and Expert Pool in delivering our goals.