The European Union and Cybersecurity: A Historiography of an Emerging Actor’s Response to a Global Security Concern

This chapter is part of a broader analysis of the EU’s approach to internal security and focusses on the development of cybersecurity policy. The EU acknowledges that cyberspace is essential for daily life, protecting fundamental rights and ensuring economic development. As a result the EU’s policy approach has a broad remit, addressing issues as diverse as child pornography, digital copyright infringement, privacy, the protection of critical physical infrastructures and the synergies between civilian and military capabilities. The chapter provides an historiographical examination of the development of this EU cybersecurity policy demonstrating the continuity of thematic goals. The chapter examines the historical and political context in which policy developed, identifying three distinct phases. In the first, between 2001 and 2006, the EU set out the information security challenges it faced. In the second phase between 2006 and 2013 the EU adopted an arms’-length posture encouraging voluntary action and co-operation. Finally, post-2013 and the publication of its Cybersecurity Strategy, the EU consolidated its approach into a more streamlined and efficient policy framework.