Cyber Resilience: What Role for International Cooperation Actors?

Faced with the continuous expansion of cyber threats, Europe has placed cybersecurity at the heart of its strategic priorities. Critical infrastructure, information networks and digital environments have become the scene of invisible but crucial conflicts: sabotage, cyberattacks and foreign interference. Attacks on submarine cables, data centres and public communication networks reveal that digital security remains dependent on physical and human infrastructure that is not sufficiently protected.

To address these challenges, the European Union promotes an open, collaborative and sovereign cybersecurity strategy, in line with its democratic principles. Through its cybersecurity policy and the Global Gateway initiative, the European Union seeks to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructure, public institutions and companies, while improving its ability to collaborate digitally with its international allies. In this context, public technical cooperation plays a central role. Development cooperation agencies, grouped together in the Practitioners Network and the Digital for Development Hub, have a fundamental role to play in both improving infrastructure security and developing digital skills within partner administrations.