On October 23–24 Vice Minister of National Defence Edvinas Kerza met with Undersecretary of State for Defence Angelo Tofalo during a formal visit to Italy and discussed cooperation on development of cyber rapid response force. Italy is planned to sign a political declaration and join the Lithuanian-led PESCO project in the nearest future.
“Italy’s adherence to the project is an important step. We can see numerous possibilities for cooperation, especially in the creation of mobile instruments for the rapid response teams,” Vice Minister E. Kerza underscored.
Vice Minister E.Kerza also met with Senior Vice President for Strategy & New Initiatives of LEONARDO defence company Paolo Salvato and took part in a discussion on threats to cybersecurity organized by the Embassy of Lithuania to Italy.
Currently, 8 EU Member States – Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Netherlands, Romania, Italy, and Finland are participants of the EU PESCO Cyber Rapid Response Teams and Mutual Assistance in Cyber Security project , and another 6 –Belgium, France, Germany Greece, Slovenia, and Spain, are observers.
The project is coordinated by a team of experts of the Cyber Security and Information Technology Policy Group of the Ministry of National Defence.
The multinational CRRTs comprise 6 to 8 cyber security specialists. The CRRTs could respond to cyber incidents within 72 hours from receiving requests from states, EU institutions, or military operations and missions. The teams could also take preventive action – carry out cyber vulnerability assessments. The first CRRT formed in the framework of this project will enter standby in 2020.
The Lithuanian-proposed initiative on creation of joint EU CRRTs and Mutual Assistance in Cyber Security project is one of the 34 projects approved under the Council of the EU Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) framework.
The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) is an instrument laid out in the Treaty of Lisbon, for deepening the cooperation in security and defence area for those EU member states that have military capabilities meeting higher criteria and are bound by greater commitments.
