Cyber sanctions: towards a European Union cyber intelligence service? College of Europe Policy Brief February 2021.

Miadzvetskaya, Yuliya (2021) Cyber sanctions: towards a European Union cyber intelligence service? College of Europe Policy Brief February 2021. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

In the global cyber policy context, sanctions are important as they represent a central component of deterrence that actors like the European Union can employ in response to malicious cyber activities that threaten critical infrastructures, democratic institutions and processes. In the EU, the success of such cyber sanctions depends on the Council of the EU’s solid situational awareness and the access to comprehensive cyber intelligence information. While the Council enjoys a considerable degree of discretion over sanctions designations, cyber sanctions are not immune to judicial review and must satisfy a set of procedural requirements. Most notably, they must include clear-cut and specific reasons for listing and be substantiated with comprehensive evidence. Most of the EU sanctions listings are supported by evidence presented by the Member States. In the past, the Council lost several sanctions-related cases due to the Member States’ unwillingness to disclose confidential information in court for considerations of national security. To allow the Council to access comprehensive intelligence information and to decrease its dependency on the voluntary decision of Member States to disclose intelligence, the EU needs its own fully-fledged intelligence service. This can be achieved, inter alia, via the enhancement of the Intelligence Centre’s (INTCEN) central role in supporting EU foreign policy decision-making in the area of (cyber)security, but also in foreign policy more widely (e.g. fight against terrorism, human rights abuses worldwide).

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