European Commission President von der Leyen addresses cybersecurity in the 2021 State of the Union

In her State of the Union speech, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen addresses the cybersecurity community linked to two main topics:

• Defence and security: “[…] Europe can – and clearly should – be able and willing to do more on its own. But if we are to do more, we first need to explain why. I see three broad categories. First, we need to provide stability in our neighbourhood and across different regions. We are connected to the world by narrow straits, stormy seas and vast land borders. Because of that geography, Europe knows better than anyone that if you don’t deal in time with the crisis abroad, the crisis comes to you. Secondly, the nature of the threats we face is evolving rapidly: from hybrid or cyber-attacks to the growing arms race in space.”
• Building the foundation for collective decision-making: “[…] We need to improve interoperability. This is why we are already investing in common European platforms, from fighter jets, to drones and cyber. But we have to keep thinking of new ways to use all possible synergies.  One example could be to consider waiving VAT when buying defence equipment developed and produced in Europe. This would not only increase our interoperability, but also decrease our dependencies of today.”, adding “[,,,] we cannot talk about defence without talking about cyber. If everything is connected, everything can be hacked. Given that resources are scarce, we have to bundle our forces. And we should not just be satisfied to address the cyber threat, but also strive to become a leader in cyber security. It should be here in Europe where cyber defence tools are developed. This is why we need a European Cyber Defence Policy, including legislation on common standards under a new European Cyber Resilience Act.”.

The full speech is available at this link. 

Source: European Commission