GFA acquires first-ever project on cybersecurity

The GFA Governance Department acquired a project on cybersecurity funded by the EU. Tendered under the recently established EU4Digital Programme, this project seeks to develop technical and cooperation mechanisms that increase cybersecurity and preparedness against cyber-attacks. The EU program seeks to extend the benefits of the Digital Single Market to the countries of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). Simultaneously, the project will facilitate the legal and institutional harmonization and approximation of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries with the European Union. It focuses on the approximation to the EU Directive dealing with cybersecurity, called Security of Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS).

The project's three fields of activities include strengthening national cybersecurity governance and legal frameworks, developing frameworks for the protection of operators of essential services (OES) and critical information infrastructure (CIIP), and increasing the operational capacities for cybersecurity incidents management of national/governmental Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). A differentiated approach will allow for a tailored and targeted implementation taking into account diverging levels of development, readiness and willingness, and the fact that three of the six EaP countries have signed Association Agreements with the EU. A second component dealing with the prevention and prosecution of cybercrime will run in parallel, and will be implemented by the Council of Europe.

This project marks a strategic moment both for the EU and GFA as this is the first-ever tendered project with an exclusive focus on cybersecurity governance and cross-border capacity development and cooperation, as well as approximation to the NIS Directive.