The EU Directorate-General for Home Affairs is assessing today in Brussels a real-time response mechanism to protect European countries from hybrid threats originating from the Russian Federation. The Republic of Moldova is evaluated in this context as a key element in the new European security architecture.
According to the briefing note presented yesterday by Commissioner Ylva Johansson to the members of the EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council, the EU Support Hub for Internal Security and Border Management of the Republic of Moldova (EU Support Hub), established last year, has achieved results that speak in favour of strengthening this mechanism.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Moldova has provided relevant analytical products in the field of transnational crime, hybrid threats and risk incidents for regional and European public security. These include the first Moldovan Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysis provided to Europol.
The European officials will discuss the proposals for further development of the EU Support Hub, immediately after the review of the Activity Report for the first six months. A technical session will also be held on greater involvement of the Republic of Moldova in the EU counter-terrorism mechanisms.
Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova Ana Revenco stated at the press briefing ahead of the fifth meeting of the EU Security Centre:
We are today addressing solutions to increase efficiency in the fight against crime and hybrid war, together with several EU interior ministers and law enforcement specialists from the EU and Moldova. We are identifying formats for the short- and medium-term strategic design of the EU Support Hub as a real-time response mechanism for the European protection.
Moldova is already a security producer and we are grateful to Commissioner Ylva Johansson who has trusted us and relied on Moldova’s resilience and responsiveness, Revenco said.
We note that the 2023 Agenda of the EU Support Hub includes improving security analysis and strategic foresight capacities by leveraging IT and information exchange between Moldovan and EU experts. The Hub also aims to create synergies and avoid duplication of spending in the field of internal affairs in Moldova and the EU.