EU Statement – UN Global Mechanism on ICTs in international security: First Substantive Session Key EU messages for Agenda item on Confidence Building Measures

Building trust and confidence is a long-term, progressive commitment that requires the sustained and genuine engagement of States. Under the OEWG, we have made significant progress in launching concrete initiatives to contribute to this, including the agreement on 8 confidence-building measures (CBMs).

The measures agreed upon under the OEWG, but also those at regional level, are crucial for deepening common understandings, preventing misunderstandings, reducing the risks of misperception and escalation, and increasing the predictability of state behaviour, ultimately contributing to greater stability in cyberspace.

The work on confidence-building measures (CBMs) under the Global Mechanism should therefore as a priority focus on the operationalisation of the voluntary non-exhaustive list of CBMs as agreed in the OEWG.

Efforts should aim to encourage active participation by States, as well as to complement the work of regional organisations, notably the OSCE, OAS, ARF and ECOWAS.

In this regard, the Global Mechanism should initially focus on raising awareness and elaborating on the existing confidence-building measures, both at a global and regional level, as well as provide States and regional groups with practical tools, best practices and examples to translate the CBMs in national legislation, policies, and mechanisms.

In this context, the EU and its Member States welcome simulation exercises that could support the identification of practical measures for the operationalization of CBMs.

The EU and its Member States affirm the value of the POC Directory, as one of the eight global CBMs, and as a tool to provide States with direct means of contact in situations where they do not have these means already existing.

The global POC Directory could facilitate engagement between States in case of cyber incidents, when dealing with a lack of understanding on whom to reach out to. In this way, the POC Directory could provide a complimentary tool to Member States' incident response in cases where they do not have the contacts or already existing relations on cybersecurity matters.

To further develop the Directory, the EU and its Member States initially support the integration of the Directory into the GSCCP to support cooperation and communication under the Global Mechanism, and are also open to exploring further development of the POC Directory based on lessons learnt from its use.

We consider it important, however, to avoid duplication of efforts with existing networks of POCs, and with existing regional and bilateral relations. We stress that the POC Directory is a voluntary tool that can be useful when other means are lacking, but which should not replace existing cooperation efforts and established means of contact.

In addition to the POC Directory, the EU and its Member States support the operationalisation of the other 8 CBMs. The Plenary and DTGs could facilitate this work, including for instance by

1. sharing national ICT strategies, policies, legislation, institutions, concept papers and best practices on a voluntary basis under DTG1, in line with CBM#3 and

2. in our exchanges on the protecting critical infrastructure, in line with CBM#7;

3. in promoting information exchange on cooperation and partnerships between States to strengthen ICT security capacity and enable CBM implementation, in line with CBM#5;

4. and intersessionally, in the margins of our sessions, as well as as part of our capacity building efforts, by organizing regular seminars, workshops and training programmes on ICT security, in line with CBM#6.

The Global Mechanism discussions will enable us to take forward our achievements on CBMs under the OEWG, further outlining their value in preventing cyber incidents and in building trust, transparency, and stability in cyberspace, and incorporating them in our regional and national practices as complementary tools to the application of international law and norms of responsible state behaviour.