We will step up our work in support of cyber defence capacity building of our partners - we are supporting Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. Such a statement made EU High-Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell stated at the Security and Defence package press conference.

We are proposing [actions] to increase our ability to prevent, detect, deter the cyber-attacks and defend ourselves against them. We are following the same lines, the same verbs that we use in the Strategic Compass on Security and Defence: to act together for a stronger EU cyber defence, secure our defence ecosystem, invest in better cyber defence capabilities, and partner to address common challenges.

There is one common thread: better and stronger cooperation between the military and the civilians. We must create the structures and mechanisms for cooperation among military actors to improve the situational awareness, the detection, the 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.

Also, [we will establish] an operational network of Military Computer Emergency Response Teams with the European Defence Agency acting as secretariat.

Similarly, we need to address the gaps in the cyber defence workforce. We need to train, educate, and do exercises with the people that will work in these new battlefields. Because, certainly, we need to increase the number of people ready to participate in this kind of war, knowing that the classical warfare, the classical training of a soldier does not fit anymore in this new dimension of the war.

And 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”, - said Josep Borrell.