The European Commission (EC) has proposed a number of measures to build strong cybersecurity in the European Union (EU).

Among other things, the EC has proposed setting up of an EU Cybersecurity Agency, a European certification scheme, and creating an effective criminal law response.

"The EU will pursue an international cyber policy promoting an open, free and secure cyberspace as well as support efforts to develop norms of responsible state behaviour, apply international law and confidence building measures in cybersecurity,” Federica Mogherini, High Representative/Vice-President, EC, said.

In order to combat fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment, the EC has also proposed boosting deterrence through new measures.

“The proposed Directive will strengthen the ability of law enforcement authorities to tackle this form of crime by expanding the scope of the offences related to information systems to all payment transactions, including transactions through virtual currencies. The law will also introduce common rules on the level of penalties and clarify the scope of Member States' jurisdiction in such offences”, it said.

In a separate document on tackling non-cash payment, the EC said that the existing statutes are not adequate to deal with innovative technologies, including cryptoccurencies, CoinDesk reported. The report states:

“The current rules on criminalization of non-cash payment fraud are set out in the Council Framework Decision 2001/413/JHA dating back to 2001. It has become clear that those rules no longer reflect today’s realities and do not sufficiently address new challenges and technological developments such as virtual currencies and mobile payments.”

The Commission said that it will present its reflections on the role of encryption in criminal investigations in October. In addition, it will also present proposals to facilitate cross-border access to electronic evidence in the beginning of 2018.

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