EU Reaches Agreement On Cybersecurity Rules

On December 7, 2015, the European Parliament and the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU reached an agreement on common rules to strengthen network and information security across the EU. The new network and information security Directive (the "NIS Directive") was initiated under the 2013 EU Cybersecurity Strategy following several incidents that highlighted the need to prevent these cyber attacks in the most efficient way. The NIS Directive constitutes the first and essential step for the development of an EU harmonized framework for cybersecurity, as the Commission announced in the Digital Single Market Strategy last May.

The NIS Directive has been controversial in relation to its scope of application because many Member States were sensitive to the protection of their sovereignty in security issues and concerned about the economic impact of this type of regulation.