Season’s greetings from the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre

After a preparation phase in 2022, where the Governing Board and the European Commission set the preliminary foundations, the Centre has really taken off this year, becoming largely operational. One year ago, the Centre had no staff and no operational tasks; today it has 27 employees (there will be 30 on 1 February 2024), operating from the ECCC own premises in Bucharest, managing calls for proposals and projects on cybersecurity funded with millions of euros from the Digital Europe Programme.

The Centre adopted in March 2023 its first strategic agenda for EU investment in cybersecurity, signed many new grants this year and has just published a new call for proposals, which will be followed by other calls for more grants and joint procurements in 2024.

Member States and countries associated to the ECCC have set up their National Coordination Centres, in most cases supported by EU funding, which significantly increased their activity throughout the year. They have also structured cooperation amongst themselves through the Network of NCCs, which started to meet regularly in 2023, and several working groups.

The Governing Board formally met 3 times in 2023, providing strategic guidance to the ECCC and adopting decisions necessary for the ECCC to operate, including the selection of the future Executive Director Luca Tagliaretti, who will take up his duties early next year.

In 2024 the Centre will reach cruising speed: managing more funding, recruiting a few more employees (the current establishment plan foresees 38 staff), moving to permanent premises and becoming financially autonomous from the European Commission.

For me personally, it is a great satisfaction to see the ECCC growing from a proposal that the Commission presented back in September 2018 into a tangible reality today, and a privilege to have supported this process during all this time.

The ECCC adventure continues with more and new people on board, always with the same goal in mind: to make Europe more cyber resilient.

But for the moment, I wish you, on behalf of all of us at the ECCC, cyber-secure season's greetings and a happy new year.

                                                                                                                 Miguel González-Sancho

                                                                                                     ECCC Interim Executive Director