EU Cyber Center, A Step Forward

The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest hails the new step forward taken by the European Parliament in order to make operational the EU Cyber Center, which is to be located in Romania

Corina Cristea, 21.05.2021, 14:00

The
European Parliament has endorsed the regulations on setting up the EU Cyber
Center and the National Coordination Centers Network, which is the last
procedural step in the process of passing the legislation needed for the
setting up of this European structure in Romania’s capital Bucharest. In
December 2020 the EU members voted that Romania would host the future
headquarters of the European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research
Competence Centre, the aforementioned institution thus becoming the first EU
structure hosted by Romania.

Designed
as a key-structure in the efforts of creating an inter-connected, Europe-wide
cybersecurity industrial and research ecosystem, the center will be playing a
major role in the creation of connections between public and private players in
the field, the academic environment and the EU field industry.

The institution will ensure the coordination
between national cyber centers in the member states and is to take action in an
attempt to bolster research and technological innovation with a view to
consolidating cyber security within the bloc.

The
new center is expected to benefit from unprecedented funding and will be the
main body specialized in managing the EU funds devoted to research in the field
of cyber security through the EU’s two funding programmes in this area namely Digital
Europe and Horizon Europe.

We
expect the Cyber Center to attract the best IT experts as well as major
European companies in the projects it is going to run, says Dan Cimpean, director
of the Romanian National Cyber Security and Incident Response Team CERT-RO.

Dan Cîmpean: This agency will be mainly dealing in
programmes and projects in the field of cyber security. Organisations, it was
very difficult to get into contact with and talk to a couple of years ago, have
become increasingly interested in talking with the Romanian authorities and
with potential local business partners. I see this institution as something
with huge potential, and I can proudly describe it as something that can turn
Romania into a magnet. A European agency that will be running many programmes
and projects targeting various consortiums all over Europe. It is not a
condition that these organisations must be located in Bucharest or in Timisoara
or in some other place on the Romanian territory.

The
Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has hailed the European Parliament
decision, pointing out that in this context the process of making operational
the Cyber Center and the related national centers can be stepped up. 30-40
experts are expected to be hired by the Cyber Center in Bucharest in its first
years and the personnel recruitment is to be done in Brussels. Later, the
institution is expected to enlarge and have 120 employees.

(bill)