CYBER SECURITY : ENISA: MEPS PROPOSE SEVEN-YEAR TERM.

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) should have a seven-year mandate, according to the vast majority of the members of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), who voted, on 6 February, on British ECR MEP Giles Chichester's report on the draft regulation relative to the agency recast. The agency's term of office will expire on 13 September 2013. This vote will give Chichester the remit to start three-way negotiations in first reading.

However, the Council has yet to finalise its common position on the text because there has been no agreement on the duration of the term. While some member states support the Commission's initial proposal for a five-year term for reasons of efficiency, others are in favour of an unlimited period.

As well as setting a new term of office, the draft regulation, proposed in September 2009 by the Commission, aims to reinforce and modernise the ENISA. The text proposes extending the functions of the agency and, with that aim in mind, it...