European Commission VP vows to “step up” work on cyber defence support for Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova
In his remarks, the EU official stressed the Russian aggression against Ukraine was being accompanied by “repeated” cyber attacks not only against Ukraine, but also “against us and against our partner countries”. Photo: Reuters
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Josep Borrell, the vice president of the European Commission and high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, on Thursday said the bloc would “step up” its work in support of cyber defence capacity building of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova among other partners.
We will step up our work in support of cyber defence capacity building of our partners also. We are doing that through the European Peace Facility, supporting Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, and we are looking to further advance with others, in particular the Western Balkans, where some countries like, for example, Albania are suffering from cyber-attacks”, Borrell said.
In his remarks, the EU official stressed the Russian aggression against Ukraine was being accompanied by “repeated” cyber attacks not only against Ukraine, but also “against us and against our partner countries”.
We are proposing [actions] to increase our ability to prevent, detect, deter the cyber-attacks and defend ourselves against them. We should act together for a stronger EU cyber defence, secure our defence ecosystem, invest in better cyber defence capabilities, and partner to address common challenges”, he continued.
Borrell noted it was “necessary” to create “structures and mechanisms” for cooperation among military actors to improve the situational awareness, detection, preparedness and response.
That is why we are proposing, in this plan, to create an EU Cyber Defence Coordination Centre. It would act as a central node to collect, analyse and distribute cyber defence information”, he concluded.
Josep Borrell, the European Union high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, on Tuesday said the implementation of the 12-point conditions for obtaining the EU membership candidate status was not only the Georgian government’s job but “everyone”, including citizens, should stand together to fulfil the recommendations.
Oliver Varhelyi, the European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, on Tuesday said the “most important “advice for Georgia was to focus on the conditions of the European Commission for granting the country the EU membership candidate status, and expressed his hope “all stakeholders” in the country would work on the objective.
The European Union-Georgia Association Council highlighted the “historic importance” of the decision of the European Council to recognise the European perspective to Georgia and underlined the future of Georgia and its citizens “lies within the European Union”, in a joint press statement on Wednesday.
Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the European Council had “confirmed Georgia’s clear European perspective” in June, in comments following the EU-Georgia Association Council meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.
Irakli Chikovani, an MP from the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday said the “absolute majority” of conditions outlined by the European Union for granting the country the membership candidate status would be implemented by December.
Mikheil Sarjveladze, the chair of the Georgian parliament's committee on human rights, on Monday said “certain opposition groups” were aiming to jeopardise the implementation of “any” of the European Union conditions for granting the country the membership candidate status.
Oliver Varhelyi, the European Union commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, will visit Georgia to hold meetings on Tuesday, the government administration has announced.
Pawel Herczynski, the European Union’s ambassador to Georgia, on Tuesday said he hoped the visit of Oliver Varhelyi, the EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, to the country would push the relations “even further”.