The revised ENISA International Strategy renews the Agency’s approach to engagement with its international partners. It strengthens the alignment to the EU’s international cybersecurity policies, the promotion of EU values, and fortifies our mission to achieve higher common level of cybersecurity across Europe.
The digital landscape we navigate today is increasingly interconnected. Cyber threats have no borders, and therefore cooperation is essential. ENISA therefore seeks to strategically engage with its international partners outside of the EU working within its mandate. The main objective of ENISA in doing so is to raise cybersecurity levels within the European Union. ENISA hence engages internationally when such cooperation supports this mission.
ENISA Executive Director, Juhan Lepassaar stated: “International cooperation is essential in cybersecurity. It complements and strengthens the core tasks of ENISA, to achieve a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union. Together with our Management Board, ENISA determines how we engage at international level to achieve our mission and mandate. ENISA stands fully prepared to cooperate on the global stage to support the EU Member States in doing so.”
As an integrated part of ENISA’s overall strategy and in particular its recently renewed stakeholders’ strategy, the renewed international strategy focuses on international partners sharing the EU’s values, and with which the Union has strategic relationships. Cooperation currently covers:
- More tailored working arrangements with specific countries (Ukraine, the US), focusing on capacity-building, best practice exchange and information / knowledge exchange;
- Supporting the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) in the EU’s cyber dialogues, for example with Japan or the UK;
- Support for the EU candidate countries of the Western Balkans region. Starting in 2026, this is designed to extend specific ENISA frameworks and tools for instance through the development of comparative cyber indexes or exercise methodologies or by providing trainings;
- Making the EU Cybersecurity Reserve established through the 2025 EU Cyber Solidarity Act operational for third countries associated with the Digital Europe Programme such as Moldova;
- Support for the cybersecurity work of the G7 cybersecurity Working Group, providing EU level cybersecurity expertise where required and;
- Exploring cooperation with like-minded partners.
The strategy confirms the principles which guide the international cooperation work of ENISA and the working modalities with the European Commission, the EEAS and EU Member States. These were put in place by the ENISA Management Board, following the adoption of the first international strategy in 2021 and have been further consolidated and clarified based on best practices.
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