Cybercriminalité

Eastern Partnership countries keep facing significant political and security challenges. Increasing reliance on technology in this region, in particular since the COVID-19 pandemic, is exploited by offenders and mirrored by growing levels of crime in cyberspace.

Investigating and prosecuting cybercrime and enabling access to electronic evidence, including with respect to war crimes committed during the Russian aggression against Ukraine since 2022, is essential in order to bring offenders to justice.

Since 2019, the European Commission and the Council of Europe have been working together to improve cyber resilience in the region under the umbrella of the CyberEast project. This is an integral part of the EU4Digital initiative - the EU’s flagship regional programme to support digital transformation and the harmonisation of digital markets in the Eastern Partnership countries.

Building on the lessons learnt from CyberEast, the two organisations have launched a new phase of the project, that is CyberEast+. This new phase will step-up the fight against cybercrime, notably through implementation of the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), through improved policies and legislation, through cooperation between criminal justice and cybersecurity communities and by strengthening operational skills and competencies of specialised cybercrime units.

The overall budget for this project, implementing from 2024 to 2027, is EUR 3.9 million, out of which EUR 3.5 million is contributed by the European Commission and remaining 10% matched by the Council of Europe.

CyberEast+project page

CyberEast project page

EU4Digital initiative

Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention)