Speeches

Madam President! I have just returned from Athens from a visit to the European Cybersecurity Agency. If I didn't know it before, I know it now: We are in the middle of a cyber war, and therefore cybersecurity must of course also be at the top of the agenda, and therefore it is welcome that we discuss it today. Ursula von der Leyen herself said so in her State of the Union address. This is an important step to strengthen European cooperation on cybersecurity, but more needs to be done. Knowledge sharing and closer cooperation cannot do it alone. New tools are needed to tackle cyber threats. The EU needs to be able to adopt common sanctions. One of my colleagues mentioned this before: We need sanctions, individual Member States, but we need joint actions, joint sanctions. When Member States are repeatedly subjected to cyber-attacks by certain hacker groups, or even hostile states, we need to be able to respond together. I really hope that this debate will lead to a new recognition of this fact: A joint effort is also needed in cyberspace.

Madam President! Today, it is painfully clear that when it comes to cyber-attacks and hybrid threats, we are painfully helpless in the European community. Today, we have no way of responding effectively to the constant attack on our democracy, including disinformation or cyber-attacks against key IT infrastructures. Therefore, as has been said by several speakers – and I share this view – it makes sense to develop the necessary instruments so that we can punish countries so that we can take action against countries that are committing crimes against us in cyberspace. In this context, we should probably consider whether it should not be possible to adopt sanctions by qualified majority in the Council. A few Member States must not be able to block the necessary sanctions, as has unfortunately happened in several cases. Is this something that the High Representative will be able to afford, is it something that is being worked on?