NATO and the European Union have signed an agreement to improve cooperation in cyber defence. The technical agreement, signed at NATO headquarters, establishes a framework for emergency response teams from NATO and the EU to exchange information and share best practices. Since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, NATO and the EU, which have 22 member countries in common, have accelerated cooperation in a number of defense-related fields.

In a statement, the European Union said the new agreement will facilitate information-sharing to improve cyber incident prevention, detection and response at both the EU and NATO.  The EU-NATO cooperation in cyber security issues started in 2010, with high level staff-to-staff cyber defence consultations and informal meetings that now take place annually. NCIRC and CERT-EU have been cooperating since the creation of CERT-EU in 2011. The EU has been also observing the NATO annual cyber defence exercise, “Cyber Coalition”.

The signing of this agreement is an important milestone to implement the objectives of the EU Cyber Defence Policy Framework, which has set cooperation with NATO as one of its five priorities.