Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, and Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, will participate in the International Cybersecurity Forum that is taking place from today until 9 September in Lille, France. The Forum is one of the most important events in Europe on cybersecurity gathering European cybersecurity professionals and stakeholders to reflect and exchange views.
Vice-President Schinas will deliver a keynote speech on Wednesday 8 September in which he will focus on the impact of the increasing number of sophisticated cyber-attacks on the daily lives of citizens and businesses. He will also explain the importance of cybersecurity as part of the European Security Union.
Executive Vice-President Vestager will participate in a fireside chat on Thursday 9 September where she will discuss cybersecurity as well as broader aspects of trust in the digital transformation and digital society, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), ethics and digital identity.
Finally, Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market will close the conference with a video message highlighting the EU Cybersecurity Strategy. A key component of Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, the Recovery Plan for Europe and the EU Security Union Strategy, the EU Cybersecurity Strategy aims to harness and strengthen all available tools and resources in the EU to ensure that European citizens and businesses are well protected, both online and offline, against increasing cyber threats and incidents. It was presented in December 2020 by the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Furthermore, in June 2021, the Commission laid out practical steps to build a new Joint Cyber Unit, which aims at bringing together resources and expertise available to the EU and its Member States to effectively prevent, deter and respond to mass cyber incidents and crises.