News about Strengthening trust and security

The Commission presented a set of recommendations for the creation of a secure system that will enable citizens to access their electronic health files across Member States.

The fourth evaluation on the EU Code of Conduct shows that this Commission initiative delivers successful results. IT companies are now assessing 89% of flagged content within 24 hours and 72% of the content deemed to be illegal hate speech is removed, compared to 40% and 28% respectively when the Code was first launched in 2016. However, companies need to improve their feedback to users.

Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, has kicked off the Women4Cyber initiative in Brussels, which was launched by the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) in November last year. It aims to increase the involvement of women in the development and promotion of European cybersecurity.

The European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission have reached a political agreement on the Cybersecurity Act which reinforces the mandate of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, (European Union Agency for Network and Information and Security, ENISA) so as to better support Member States with tackling cybersecurity threats and attacks. The Act also establishes an EU framework for cybersecurity certification, boosting the cybersecurity of online services and consumer devices.

The European Commission and the High Representative have proposed a wide range of concrete measures that will further strengthen the EU’s cybersecurity structures and capabilities with more cooperation between the Member States and the different EU structures concerned. These measures will ensure that the EU is better prepared to face the ever-increasing cybersecurity challenges.

At the Telecoms Council of 4 December, the EU ministers adopted a partial general approach on the Digital Europe Programme. Building on the Digital Single Market strategy, launched in May 2015, and its achievements over the past years, the European Commission proposed in June 2018 to create the first ever Digital Europe Programme and invest €9.2 billion in tomorrow's digital technologies as part of the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027.

If you want to discover the impact that digital technologies have on eGovernment, as well as on health and care, then you can attend the “Digital Citizen” panel discussion taking place at ICT 2018.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecom call on cybersecurity has just closed. 49 project proposals have been submitted by transport and energy companies, ICT firms, ministries and national organisations from 19 EU Member States. The applicants are proposing an overall investment of 28 million euros to improve their operational capabilities in cybersecurity, of which 18.3 million euros have been requested to be co-financed by the European Union. The EU budget dedicated for this call was 13 million euros.

Today the European Commission published a new study, the eGovernment benchmark report 2018, which demonstrates that the availability and quality of online public services have improved in the EU. Overall there has been significant progress in respect to the efficient use of public information and services online, transparency of government authorities' operations and users' control of personal data, cross-border mobility and key enablers, such as the availability of electronic identity cards and other documents.