Excellencies,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its 27 Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Serbia*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, and Bosnia and Herzegovina*, the potential candidate country Georgia, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area align themselves with this statement.

As outlined in the suggested guiding questions, especially the one concerning voluntary checklists and other tools to assist States in mainstreaming the capacity building principles, I would like to provide some details on the EU’s initiatives concerning cyber capacity building. We hope this may offer some examples or lessons learned through which the UN could take on and support capacity building at the global level.

In 2019, the EU Cyber Capacity Building Network (EU CyberNet) was launched to support partner countries in building their capacity to defend vis-a-vis cyber threats and promote EU’s good practices and standards in cybersecurity. It is not only a practical learning platform for strengthening cybersecurity globally but it is also an instrument for cyber-capacity building mapping of the EU and its Member States.

The main purpose of the mapping is to increase operational awareness, enhance coordination, and reduce fragmentation across EU cyber capacity building actions. It contributes to the global delivery of the EU’s external cyber initiatives through running a 300+ member pan-European Expert Pool, carrying out training activities and providing a forum for exchanges of experiences and mutual learning among the large European Stakeholder Community of capacity building.

Mapping is a useful tool for analysing complex and dynamic situations where multiple actors, priorities and resources are involved. This is why we are looking forward to the mapping that UNODA has been tasked to produce. This will allow to enhance our understanding of the existing capacity building programmes and identify potential areas that would need further focus.

As of 1 January 2023, a total of 33 ongoing EU funded cyber capacity-building actions were mapped with an estimated overall funding of almost 179 million EUR[1]. The majority of the EU’s 33 ongoing EU funded cyber capacity-building actions focus on cybersecurity, cybercrime and cyber diplomacy.

With the establishment of the EU CyberNet in 2019 and the implementation of the EU Cyber Capacity Building Board in 2022, the EU has put strong emphasis on reducing duplication of efforts and at the same time identifying priorities for new cyber capacity building activities. We also welcome the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) and its role to facilitate coordination, convening, knowledge sharing and matchmaking on cyber capacity building.

We also look forward to continue discussion on a Global Cyber Security Cooperation Portal (GCSCP) and believe it is important for any initiative to leverage and work with existing multi stakeholder and UN efforts. In this regard, we stress the need to link such an initiative with existing the multistakeholder GFCE Cybil Portal and the UNIDIR cyber policy portal. 

An important enabler for cyber capacity building is mainstreaming cybersecurity with the development community— recognising that achieving the sustainable development goals are dependent on digital technologies which depend on strong cybersecurity and cyber resilience. We therefore supported and actively participated in the recent inaugural Global Conference on Cyber Capacity Building held in Accra organised by the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise, the World Bank, the Cyber Peace Institute, the World Economic Forum and hosted by the Government of Ghana. The conference brought together the cyber and development communities with the goal to bridge these two agendas and to further promote a free, open, and secure digital transition for all.

The EU is proud to be one of the first endorsers of the Accra Call for Cyber Resilient Development: an action framework designed to strengthen the role of cyber resilience as an enabler of sustainable development, advance demand driven cyber capacity building, foster better coordination and unlock resources. We urge other states and stakeholders to join us in endorsing and following up on the actions set by the Accra Call. 

The demand for capacity building is strong and increasing, and rightfully so.  That makes our discussions here today even more important. We have to ensure that we cooperate and coordinate with all the partners that play a role in establishing a strong cyber ecosystem, including industry, civil society and academia. Based on our experience, such cooperation and coordination is not only key to meaningful allocation of scarce resources but also essential in delivering effective and sustainable human-centric and needs-based capacity building activities.

As the field of cyber capacity building grows, we have an opportunity to approach this agenda in a holistic manner and make sure it builds as part of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Ensuring coordination, sharing of experiences and good practices and creating partnerships necessary so all individuals can reap the benefits of a digitized world.

[1] Latest figures are depicted at the EU cyber net website www.eucybernet.eu