Cyber Europe

The Tallinn Ministerial Conference, which took place in April 2009, built on the five pillars of the CIIP Action Plan and stressed that: “A joint EU exercise on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection should be organised and staged by 2010, in line with the Commission’s action plan".

As a final ratification of the importance of exercising, at national but also at a pan-European level, the Council Resolution published in Dec 2009 mentions that: “Member States should organise national exercises and/or participate in regular European exercises in the area of Network and Information Security...”, “...ENISA participate with Member States on exercises to provide appropriate responses to emergencies...”

Supporting EU-wide cyber security preparedness exercises is one of the main actions of the Digital Agenda for Europe, the new policy plan of the European Commission.

ENISA’s new proposed mandate also highlights the importance of cyber security preparedness exercises in enhancing trust and confidence in online services across Europe.

In this context, ENISA is facilitating the process of planning, conducting and evaluating Pan-European exercises. The first such effort was the first Pan-European exercise on CIIP, Cyber Europe 2010, conducted on the 4th of November 2010. The exercise was organised by EU Member States with support from the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Currently, ENISA is facilitating the planning process of Cyber Europe 2012, which has set more ambitious objectives and it is foreseen that it will further develop trust and cooperation of key actors in Europe in the area of CIIP.