European Union

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Austria's Health Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) is resigning from office for health reasons and his successor is expected to be named later on Tuesday (13 April). EURACTIV Germany reports.

EU lawmakers from the Renew group have submitted a request to the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee to hold off on adopting a position on the UK's adequacy for EU personal data transfers until the EU's data protection watchdog has weighed in on the plans.

After criticism from regional leaders, the Czech government overturned its decision to support local sports clubs with money from the REACT-EU emergency instrument. Instead, a large majority of the funds will go to the healthcare system, EURACTIV Czech Republic reports.

EDA participates this week in the Exercise ‘Locked Shields 2021’, the largest and most complex international live-fire cyber defence exercise organised from 13-16 April by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). Taking place every spring since 2010, the exercise puts this year a special focus on the need for cyber defenders and strategic decision-makers to understand the numerous interdependencies between national IT systems.  

More than 2000 participants from 30 nations will have the possibility to test and train their entire chain of command in the event of a severe cyber incident, ranging from the strategic to the operational and tactical levels and involving both civilian and military capabilities. Reflecting real world cyber threats, the exercise deals with the protection of vital services and critical infrastructure that are fundamental for modern societies to operate, including critical information infrastructure, power and water supply and national defence systems. For the first time, the exercise also includes satellite mission control systems needed to provide real time situational awareness to facilitate military decision-making.  

Based on a fictive but realistic scenario, ‘Locked Shields’ will see a Red Team acting against 22 Blue Teams which take on the role of national cyber–Rapid Reaction Teams that are deployed to assist a fictional country in handling a large-scale cyber incident with all its implications. The exercise involves cutting-edge technologies, complex networks, and diverse attack methods with some 5000 virtualised systems being subject to more than 4000 attacks. In addition to securing complex IT systems, the participating Blue Teams must also be effective in reporting incidents, strategic decision making and solving forensic, legal, media and information operations challenges. In previous iterations of Locked Shields, the organisers of the exercise gathered in Tallinn, Estonia, with the participating Blue Teams joining remotely by secure online access from their home base. However, in 2021, the exercise differs in that the organisers will also be contributing remotely from their home nations.  
EDA support to strategic track  After 2019, EDA will support the strategic track of the Locked Shields exercise for the second time (LS20 was cancelled due to Covid pandemic) by bringing in its expertise and experience gained from its own Comprehensive Cyber Senior decision-making (CC SDM) exercise which has taken place in different EDA Member States since 2014 and where the participating countries had the opportunity to test and evaluate national crisis mechanisms and procedures. In particular, EDA will support Locked Shields’ exercise control unit’s White Team to manage the different Blue Teams during the strategic track of the exercise. In addition to that, EDA developed and provided the specific air scenario inputs as part of the overall strategic scenario. 
Background  Locked Shields 2021 is organised by the Tallin-based NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) in cooperation with NATO Communications and Information Agency, the Estonian Ministry of Defence, the Estonian Defence Forces, the European Defence Agency (EDA), Siemens, Ericsson, TalTech, CR14, Bittium, Clarified Security, Arctic Security, Cisco, Stamus Networks, SpaceIT, Sentinel, the Financial Service Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), US Defense Innovation Unit, Microsoft, Atech, Avibras, SUTD iTrust Singapore, The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, Space ISAC, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), STM, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, NATO M&S COE and PaloAlto networks. 
More information: 

• Exercise Locked Shields 21 website
• EDA Cyber Defence project page 

Ukraine accused the Kremlin of ignoring its request for talks between the two countries’ presidents over a build-up of Russian troops near its border, but Moscow said its soldiers were on its own territory, unlike US forces in the region.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Greece reopening its high schools as it has recently started offering free home-testing kits to its population, Croatia's pensioners set to receive COVID-19 relief from the government, and so much more.

Despite the fatigue with the pandemic and the longing for stability and predictability, Europe has entered the age of ‘permacrisis’, in which volatility, uncertainty, and a prolonged sense of emergency have become the new normal, argue Ricardo Borges de Castro, Fabian Zuleeg and Janis A. Emmanouilidis.

Europe needs a massive increase in renewable electricity to meet its 2030 decarbonisation targets, including a ramp up of clean hydrogen production from electrolysers, a senior EU official has said.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias called Monday (12 April) for the pullout of foreign forces from Libya, during a visit to the eastern city of Benghazi.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said on Monday the EU would not help Montenegro repay a loan it had taken from a Chinese bank for the construction of a highway. On Monday, Montenegro’s Minister of Capital Investments Mladen Bojanić said...

The Reisu-l-Ulema of the Islamic Community of Serbia, Sead Nasufović, said on Monday that followers of Islam can receive the COVID-19 vaccine during the Ramadan fast. “Not a drop of water may be drunk during fasting, food may not be...

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that an agreement has been reached with pensioners’ representatives regarding COVID-19 support to be paid to approximately 850,000 seniors in late April or early May. It is estimated that about 850,000 pensioners...

Malfunctioning ventilators have caused the deaths of three COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit on the grounds of a Bucharest infectious diseases hospital. Five other patients were moved from the care unit. Both the interior ministry and the prosecutors’...

Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček on Monday announced the establishment of a new government commission that will be tasked with calculating the European Green Deal’s impact on the Czech Republic. The decision to establish a new Green Deal commission, which...

Poland’s economy has recovered remarkably well despite being hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s unemployment rate is currently the lowest in the EU, according to German television broadcaster ZDF. According to the German broadcaster, the main reason...

Budapest’s green opposition mayor Gergely Karácsony threatened on Monday to cancel the 2023 World Athletics Championships to be held in the capital if the government decides to build a Chinese university campus instead of a planned Student City project. The...

Greek schools reopened on Monday after the government started the mass distribution of free home-testing kits to its citizens. Teachers and pupils must wear masks and get tested at least twice a week. “Our mass distribution of free home testing...

About 800 people working in the gym and catering sectors, as well as people supporting neo-fascist formation Casapound, joined an unauthorised protest Monday in the centre of Rome to urge the government to allow their businesses to reopen. Some demonstrators...

Finnish national carrier Finnair and Norwegian regional airliner Widerøe have announced their intention to purchase battery-powered electric planes, giving credibility to a Nordic initiative that is attempting to drive forward the development of electric aircraft. Finnair has signed a letter...