European Union

In the wake of the far-right riots in Chemnitz, prominent politicians and the head of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution are under fire for trivialising the scale of the violence. They are playing into the hands of the extremists, some commentators lament. Others stress that nationalism also feeds on legitimate demands.

One week ago Scotland Yard named and posted photos of two suspects in the Skripal case. Now President Putin has let it be known that while the men have been found, they are not Russian agents, have done nothing wrong and will make their own statements on the affair. The president's reaction only reinforces suspicions, Russian opposition media argue.

“Are you surprised that the leading software companies dominating the world today are American platforms?” These are the words of EIT digital chief Willem Jonker, speaking at the EIT digital conference 2018 in Brussels on Tuesday (11 September).

Ahmed
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
A person cannot be excluded from eligibility for subsidiary protection if he is deemed to have ‘committed a serious crime’ on the basis of the sole criterion of the penalty provided for under the law of the Member State concerned

NK Rosneft and Others v Council
External relations
The General Court of the EU upholds restrictive measures adopted by the Council against a number of Russian banks and oil and gas companies in connection with the crisis in Ukraine

Wind Tre
Freedom of establishment
The sale of SIM cards on which services that can incur fees have been pre-loaded and pre-activated constitutes an aggressive unfair commercial practice when the consumers are not informed of that fact in advance

UBS Europe and Others
MARI
National financial supervisory authorities may have an obligation to disclose information covered by professional secrecy in order to safeguard the rights of the defence or in order that the information may be used in civil or commercial proceedings

EDA’s Cyber Ranges Federation project, in which 11 Member States will federate their national cyber ranges and improve their respective Cyber Defence training capabilities, reached an important milestone with the completion of its first development phase (‘Spiral one’). With several EU Member States developing their own national cyber ranges, this project aims at developing a system to interconnect and federate them into a highly effective European network that benefits from the strengths of each participant. 

The objective is to develop a more sophisticated and powerful platform enabling exercise and training planners to design more realistic scenarios relying on existing and interconnected capabilities. At the same time, it will allow users to improve their Cyber Defence skills by relying on an extremely effective environment. In addition to training and exercise support, the federated capability will also be beneficial for other activities such as research, modelling, simulation and testing. The sharing of knowledge and best practices is another objective of the project. 

The Cyber Ranges Federation will be supported by a web-based Cyber Defence Training and Exercise Coordination Platform (CD TEXP), an EDA product currently in a test phase, whose capabilities will be extended to support the project. The EDA also provides expertise and support in Cyber Defence and other areas.

The first phase of the project, led by The Netherlands, was focused on developing formal requirements and a draft high level technical architecture to interconnect national cyber ranges. The requirements were produced leveraging knowledge and experience from all participant Member States, including military and academia representatives. NATO was involved in the first phase as an observer. In light of the 2016 EU-NATO Joint Declaration, additional ways for cooperation and coordination with NATO’s own capabilities will also be investigated by the project team in the next phase.
 

Second phase launched on 5 September

The second phase of the project (‘Spiral two’), led by Finland, kicked off on 5 September 2018 at a meeting in Helsinki (picture above). It will mainly focus on taking up the afore-mentioned requirements and implement them. The outcome will include the creation of a Community of Interest in which Cyber Defence training and exercise specialists will collaborate and improve the pooling & sharing of resources in this highly demanding domain. 

Earlier this year, six Member States signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) confirming their intent to contribute with their respective cyber range assets to the project; other Member States are expected to join the MoU before end of 2018.
 

Background

The success of military operations, including EU-led operations, is increasingly dependent on the availability of, and access to, cyberspace. The EU Cyber Security Strategy 2013 recognizes Cyber Defence as one of the strategic priorities of the EU and Heads of State and Governments decided in December 2013 that Cyber Defence should be one of four key areas for capability development.  An essential element of EU cyber defence capability is highly skilled and well-trained personnel. Enhancing awareness and education of technicians, operators and decision-makers is urgent. Cyber ranges to support training and exercises are both essential and scarce. In the 2014 Capability Development Plan, the scarceness of cyber range facilities in support of Training and Exercises was recognized as an important capability gap that urgently needs resolution. The now established project serves to close this capability gap. Pooling & Sharing projects are an integral means for closing capability gaps in the cyber domain.
 

More Information:

• Six Member States agree to pool & share cyber ranges capabilities (EDA news June 2018)
• Cyber Ranges: EDA’s First Ever Cyber Defence Pooling & Sharing Project Launched By 11 Member States (EDA news May 2017)
• EDA Cyber Defence project page
• EDA Cyber Defence factsheet

 

 

The EU and US have voiced concern on Chinese and Russian influence in the Balkans as the region's countries prepare to move closer to Western bloc.

Poland has vowed to protect Hungary against any EU sanctions - one day after the Polish president belittled Europe in a speech.

Some 3,500 people have sent the European Medicines Agency (EMA) an unsolicited job application to work for the medicines-approval body after it moves to Amsterdam in 2019, Dutch minister for medical care Bruno Bruins said in a letter to parliament on Wednesday. The most recent estimate was that EMA would lost 200 staff members currently working in London. Bruins said construction of EMA's new building was happening according to plan.

Libyan coast guards have saved some 10,000 migrants at sea since the start of this year, according to German authorities. The figure was provided by the foreign ministry during a debate in parliament over what the Left party said were "inhumane conditions" of returns of migrants to Libya. Libyan coast guards are trained by the EU to stop migrants crossing to Europe.

Eighty-nine percent of French consider Germany as a "reliable ally or partner country", compared to 44 percent for the US and 61 percent for the UK, according to a poll published Wednesday. A majority of respondents think democracy is "more fragile" than previously in the US, the EU and France. They see immigration and worsening social conditions as the main reasons for the rise of populism in the EU.

Talks between France and the UK ended on Wednesday without an agreement on scallop fishing in the waters between the two countries. French fishermen wanted their British colleagues to refrain from fishing until 1 October, as they do. The dispute led last month to a clash between boats, with the European Commission calling for an "amicable" solution.

British, French and German fighter jets simulated flight interceptions over Western Europe on Wednesday (12 September)  as part of NATO drills to deter Russian planes from entering allied airspace and to showcase European efforts to integrate their air defences.