Governing Board of European Cybersecurity Competence Centre meets for the first time in Bucharest

The Governing Board of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre is organising its first physical meeting in Bucharest on Thursday, where the Centre is headquartered, informs a press release from the European Commission.

The Governing Board of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre is composed of representatives of the Member States (27 members), the Commission (2 members) and the European Cybersecurity Agency - ENISA (1 permanent observer). Last February, the governing board elected Pascal Steichen, from Luxembourg, as president, and Katarzyna Prusak-Gorniak, from Poland, as vice-president. The European Commission manages the centre until it can function fully independently, with Miguel Gonzalez Sancho currently serving as acting Executive Director of the Centre.

Previous board meetings were held online due to the pandemic.

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca welcomed the members of the governing board. As part of this two-day meeting, the Council will discuss issues related to the Centre's priorities and its practical establishment in Bucharest, on which the Romanian authorities and the European Commission have already been working closely for several months.

The Competence Centre, together with the Network of National Coordination Centres, aims to strengthen European capacities in terms of cybersecurity, research excellence and industry competitiveness. To this end, the Centre will manage part of the funding dedicated to cyber security under the Digital Europe programme and the Horizon Europe programme, as well as funding from member states. A new call for proposals in the field of cybersecurity, worth over 140 million euros, will be launched on 29 September under the Digital Europe programme.

More broadly, the Centre aims to support the community involved in cybersecurity in Europe. The European Commission has recently launched a 3 million euros bid procedure for this purpose.

The centre is looking for an executive director, a position for which it has recently launched a call for applications. The Centre will also soon publish vacancies for other positions on its website.

The European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) aims to improve Europe's cybersecurity capabilities and competitiveness, in collaboration with a Network of National Coordination Centres (NCCs). Together, they aim to build a solid cybersecurity community. The Centre and the network will pool resources from the EU, its member states, as well as from industry, academia and other stakeholders to improve and strengthen technological and industrial cybersecurity capacities, strengthening the EU's open strategic autonomy.

The Centre will manage EU funding for the period 2021-2027, the Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes, as well as member states' contributions. Between 2021 and 2022, the EU is investing more than 300 million euros in areas such as information on cyber threats, modernising cybersecurity in SMEs, cybersecurity in the health sector, cyber-secured hardware and operating systems, or training and competencies.AGERPRES