EU Governments Agree to Help Ukraine's Telecom System

EU officials agreed Wednesday to help keep Ukraine's telecom services operational and provide IT equipment to allow its government to continue functioning, the French Presidency announced. Telecom ministers urged private sector companies that can to provide the needed equipment. Officials also stepped up the fight against disinformation, saying online platforms, particularly social media companies, "have a decisive role to play in this area." All 27 EU countries urged tech companies to take additional voluntary actions to combat online disinformation and information manipulation. They also noted that while the telecommunications sector is one of the most advanced in cyberthreat preparedness, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications and the EU Agency for Cybersecurity should identify the risks jeopardizing communications networks and infrastructure and determine how to make them more resilient. Officials also agreed to accelerate work on revising the network and information security directive. Meanwhile, the European Parliament published a report that criticized the bloc for its "general lack of awareness of the severity of foreign interference and information manipulation, overwhelmingly carried out by Russia and China," which is "exacerbated by loopholes in legislation and insufficient coordination" among EU members.