be seen as a strong argument to invest in the EU, thereby helping to achieve the ambitious goals of the Digital Single Market to create growth and jobs. A strong commitment is needed to achieve the above, notably through: i) Stepping up cooperation to enhance preparedness and deal with cyber incidents Existing and agreed cooperation mechanisms need to be strengthened to increase the EU’s resilience and preparedness, including for a possible pan-European cybersecurity crisis. These cooperation mechanisms should be comprehensive, spanning the life cycle of an incident from prevention to prosecution. Effective cooperation among Member States and practical implementation of security requirements for critical operators will also demand robust technical solutions from the cybersecurity industry. At the same time, ensuring resilience of critical cyber assets throughout the EU will require continuous efforts to find cross-sectoral synergies and to mainstream cyber requirements in all relevant EU policies. The Commission will consider the need to update the 2013 EU Cybersecurity Strategy in the near future. ii) Addressing challenges facing Europe’s cybersecurity Single Market The Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy7 recognised that specific gaps still exist in the fastmoving area of technologies and solutions for online network security. At the same time, market studies show that the EU internal market is still geographically fragmented as far as supply of cybersecurity products and services is concerned8. This Communication sets out a number of market-oriented policy measures to address these Single Market gaps and challenges. iii) Nurturing industrial capabilities in the field of cybersecurity In the EU Cybersecurity Strategy and in the DSM strategy, the Commission committed to promote increased supply of products and services by the EU cybersecurity industry. Consequently, the Commission is also adopting a decision paving the way to a contractual arrangement on Public Private Partnership (cPPP) on cybersecurity, which will seek to advance a cutting-edge European cybersecurity research and innovation agenda for increased competitiveness. 2. TAKING COOPERATION, KNOWLEDGE AND CAPACITY TO THE NEXT LEVEL The EU Cybersecurity Strategy and in particular the forthcoming NIS Directive9 will pave the way towards improved EU-level cooperation across Member States. The swift and effective implementation of the Directive will be key in view of the increasing digitalisation of economic and societal life (also taking into account the cloud, the Internet of things, and machine-to-machine communication), growing cross-border interconnection and the fast7 COM(2015) 192. See SWD(2016) 216. 9 The NIS Directive will require Member States to identify a range of operators of essential services in fields such as energy, transport, finance and health, to address cybersecurity risks, and also to ensure that certain digital service providers take appropriate measures to address such risks. 8 3