On 8 May, 17 applicants of the Diplomatic Academy accompanied by their Deputy Director, Marta Zielińska-Śliwka, visited ECSO’s premises. The visiting team participated in a discussion on a variety of topics, including the cooperation between ECSO and Ukraine, ECOS’ CISO Community, the importance of skills in the EU political agenda and active EU policy making.

The MFA Diplomatic Academy develops and implements the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ training strategy. The Academy works together with the Bureau of Human Resources to support the professional development of MFA staff, and coordinates their participation in training courses, internships and other forms of upskilling at home and abroad.

The main takeaways of the meeting included:

• UA/ECSO Cooperation: the importance of cybersecurity in Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction was emphasized during the meeting. ECSO has been actively supporting Ukraine, facilitating its exchange of information with experts from EU countries. Additionally, ECSO has played a crucial role in educating Ukrainian companies about EU cybersecurity standards.
• ECSO’s CISO Community: counting around 500 members, our CISO community plays a pivotal role in facilitating collaboration and exchange of CTI among C-level executives in cybersecurity. During the meeting, conversations arose concerning the need for a better understanding of the CISO role from a legislative point of view.
• Skills and Workforce: during the visit, ECSO’s team highlighted the importance of skills in the political agenda of EU and national decision-makers. ECSO is actively acting on capacity-building, empowerment, and resilience of the recruitment process. Our European Cyber Recruitment Initiative is helping to improve recruitment by enhancing HR’s cyber knowledge and communication with technical departments and support companies in attracting and retaining talents.
• EU Cybersecurity Policy: the conversation touched upon active EU policymaking in the current mandate, during which multiple pieces of legislation were proposed and some have been officially published. The upcoming challenges concern the finalisation of some policies and their implementation.

ECSO wishes good luck to the applicants of the Diplomatic Academy and looks forward to seeing them again in Brussels.

Read more about the Academy’s mission and activities here.