Last month, the Commission had proposed a Joint Cyber Unit to address increasing concern around cyber-attacks by bringing together member states’ resources to respond to the threats more rapidly…reports Asian Lite News.
The European Commission has formally launched the first European Defence Fund (EDF), which aims to support the competitiveness and innovation capacity of the EU defence industry.
The EU is earmarking a total of 1.2 billion euros ($1.43 billion) of funding for the year 2021 in support of collaborative defence research and development projects, Xinhua news agency quoted an official statement as saying on Wednesday.
Under the EDF’s precursor program, the European Defence Industry Development Program (EDIDP), 26 new projects with a budget of more than 158 million euros were selected for funding while two major capability development projects received a grant of 137 million euros on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said that with the EU’s first-ever dedicated defence program, European cooperation in defence will become the norm.
“Public authorities will spend better together, and companies – big or small – from all member states will benefit, resulting in more integrated European defence industrial value chains,” he said.
The 1.2 billion euros will finance projects such as the next generation of aircraft fighters, tanks or ships, as well as critical defence technologies such as military cloud, AI, semiconductors, space, cyber or medical countermeasures, he said.
Last month, the Commission had proposed a Joint Cyber Unit to address increasing concern around cyber-attacks by bringing together member states’ resources to respond to the threats more rapidly.
The unit will provide a virtual and physical platform for European Union (EU) institutions and agencies to collaborate with member states and share resources through secure channels.
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It will serve as part of the EU Cybersecurity Incident and Crisis Response Plan, the Commission said in a statement.
Thierry Breton said, “The Joint Cyber Unit is a building block to protect ourselves from growing and increasingly complex cyber threats,”, Commissioner for the Internal Market.”
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