The EU Cyber Center in Romania
“First of all, it is a very important signal that this area, cybersecurity, is very important for the Romanian state. I would also add that it is an affirmation of the potential that our experts have in this peak technology area. A European agency of this caliber, in this area, would never be placed in country that has no experts, which does not have a very dynamic cybersecurity ecosystem, an ecosystem that this agency will work and interact.”
Corina Cristea, 01.01.2021, 19:01
Romania is among the countries with the highest median Internet speed, and in time it has proven its mettle in terms of experience and competency in the digital domain. The Romanian IT human resources are famous across Europe and the world. The capital Bucharest last year ran against such powerhouse cities as Munich, Warsaw, Vilnius, Luxembourg, and Brussels, to host the future center for EU cybersecurity. This center, aimed at developing high technology and innovation, is the first European agency with its headquarters in Romania, which has been a member of the EU since 2007. Over the next six months, each member country of the European community will set up cybersecurity centers, but they will be coordinated from Bucharest. The future center will run cybersecurity projects worth billions of Euro, with exclusively European financing. These are major financial resources, which will be managed in this center, and they will arrive mainly through community research programs such as Digital Europe and Horizon Europe. The Cyber Center will be a catalyst of innovation, research, and collaboration in the area of cybersecurity for member states, according to Dan Cimpean, general director of CERT-RO, the national response center for cybersecurity events, speaking to Agerpres. He said Bucharest has many advantages, as Romania has invested a lot in IT, and has very good results in cybersecurity:
“First of all, it is a very important signal that this area, cybersecurity, is very important for the Romanian state. I would also add that it is an affirmation of the potential that our experts have in this peak technology area. A European agency of this caliber, in this area, would never be placed in country that has no experts, which does not have a very dynamic cybersecurity ecosystem, an ecosystem that this agency will work and interact.”
The staff of the center will be coming from all over Europe, but the jobs here will be an opportunity for experts from Romania, which has an impressive number of experts and graduates from relevant schools. We are talking about a very high number of brains available for the projects of the center, says Dan Cimpean. It is estimated that initially there will be 30 positions at the center, which is slated to go as high as 80. In an exclusive interview with Radio Romania, the ambassador to the EU, Luminita Odobescu, spoke about the role of the new center and what it means for Romania to manage it:
“This center is meant primarily to consolidate cybersecurity for the whole of Europe. If we look at the recent proposals of the EC in terms of the digital market and its consolidation, the digital arm of the EU, we see that cybersecurity has a major role. This center is in fact meant to coordinate national networks, cyber-protection national centers. These structures put together will help secure the domestic digital network of Europe, will be involved in protecting digital trading intelligent mobility, and will actually contribute to the EUs cybersecurty autonomy. With the center, Romania will be put on the European map in terms of coordination, but I would say that it will also gain an important global role as well.”
Cybersecurity is a major priority for the EU, the ambassador said, recalling that the digital domain is a major concern in terms of economic relaunching, because preparation for the future is done through consolidating the digital component in all sectors and policies, and when each sector comes with legislative proposals, one essential component is digitization. According to the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest, the EU cybersecurity center will be a key structure in the Unions efforts to build a pan-European security infrastructure. This would have a very important role in creating ties between public and private actors in IT, academia, and the industry in the EU, also coordinating national centers in all member countries. The proposals for setting up the center were launched by the presidency of the EC. It was an open competition that involved seven EU countries.
