European Cyber-Security in the Area of Technology: the European Union’s Response

Abstract

The nowadays technological development has profoundly transformed the national and international security landscape, generating new challenges and risks in cyberspace. Given the low costs of committing cyberattacks, the major difficulty in attributing responsibility and the multitude of actors involved, traditional deterrence strategies have become relatively ineffective. In this context, the main purpose of the article is to analyse the behaviour of the European Union in cyberspace, assessing how it reacts to these threats through mitigation strategies, public policies and institutional implemented mechanisms. In order to assess the Union's response capacity, the analysis delves into two interconnected dimensions of security dynamics: those within and those outside the organization. On the internal dimension, the study places particular emphasis on educational level and digital literacy of EU citizens, demonstrating the marked heterogeneity between Member States. On the external dimension, the article examines the EU's capacity to respond to threats originating from outside the EU bloc, testing the empirical applicability of the mutual assistance clause (Article 42.7 of the TEU) proving its rather impossible implementation.