The Deputy Minister of Research underlined ways of developing digital skills[/B] and the needs in the field of cybersecurity, Innovation and Digital Policy Kyriakos Kokkinos, during his participation in the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council of the European Union (composed of Telecommunications Ministers), in Brussels on Tuesday.
In his intervention while discussing the issue of digital skills development, Kokkinos referred to the need to create a strong ecosystem by focusing on skills upgrading policies.
As examples, he mentioned the development of funding programmes focusing on digital skills, the modernisation of education, and deepening cooperation with industry.
As he underlined, cybersecurity should be a priority as there is currently a shortage of 200,000 specialists in this field in Europe. Mr Kokkinos also informed his counterparts about the adoption of the National Action Plan for Digital Skills which Cyprus adopted in 2021 in the context of promoting the objectives at European level for the digital decade.
During the working lunch, the 27 ministers exchanged views on the Union's open strategic autonomy and digital supply chains. Kokkinos noted that strategic autonomy should be a key objective of the EU and highlighted in particular the need to reduce strategic dependencies and increase resilience, while maintaining openness and global cooperation with partners sharing the same principles and values.
In this context, he referred to Cyprus' support for the European initiative in relation to the Global Gateway Strategy, which aims to enhance the security of global infrastructures and supply chains in third countries.
The Council also adopted negotiating positions (general approaches) on two pieces of legislation, namely on the Regulation on the establishment of harmonised rules for Artificial Intelligence and on the European Digital Identity (eID), which provides for a requirement for member states to issue a European digital identity card on the basis of common technical standards.
Expressing Cyprus' support to the two proposals, Kokkinos referred to the National AI Strategy and the implementation of a National eID and Digital Wallet Plan in the country.
The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Minister of European Affairs of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Valeria Ionan, via videoconference.
Source: Cyprus Times
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