Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Engagement on Cybersecurity: European Defence Agency (Resumed)

Mr. Wolfgang Roehrig:

Member states requested the EDA to begin such an exercise. It is all voluntary, so we cannot and will not force any member state or government to run with this. We see a positive effect from all of this in that, in most of the member states that I mentioned, the exercise was a trigger to establish a national series of similar exercises to continuously train public and civil servants up to the highest level in how to react on this. As we said, we asked member states to apply natural rules, regulations and procedures. It would allow consideration of those procedures where there is a sequence involved as well. For sure, at any time, Ireland, for example, could ask the EDA to run such an exercise.