Agency Mandate prolonged by the Council

The Agency welcomes the 18-month prolongation by the Council
 
The Council has decided to prolong ENISA's mandate for 18 months, the time it will probably take to adopt the currentRegulation proposal to modernise the Agency with a five year mandate.

Commissioner Neelie Kroes also considered the agreement a success:

"I welcome the Council's agreement this morning to extend the current mandate of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) by 18 months. ENISA is a key instrument in tackling the cyber-security issues that needs to be efficient and given improved working conditions to respond to future challenges."

For full Council pressrelease

Hungarian EU- Presidency reporting on the matter;

Interview with Mr Zsolt Nyitrai,
Hungarian Minister of State for Information and Communication;

"The aims of the Presidency are arranged around the keywords of strategy, safety and spectrum. It is one of the key elements of the programme of the Hungarian Presidency to check whether European citizens trust the network well enough to rely on it, even for their bank card transactions. Thinking further, this is not only a security issue, but also a matter of competitiveness.
 
And in the creation of network security, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), is one of the most important actors. Concerning the upgrade of the Agency’s operation the Presidency has taken a large step forward during the first half of the year, since it has submitted several compromise proposals to the working group, which take into account the positions expressed by the delegations. On the one hand, we have reached a theoretical agreement on the tasks of the upgraded ENISA, and on the other hand, we have also managed to agree on the bodies of the agency. Thirdly, we have made progress in designing the work and operation of ENISA. The term of the mandate of the Agency, seems to be the only issue open.
 
In September 2011, the European Parliament is expected to express an opinion on the Agency’s modernisation, so the work will continue during the Polish Presidency. Naturally we will provide all the assistance they need. The most important thing is that ENISA work should continue.
 
The current mandate of ENISA will expire in March 2012, therefore, it had to be extended by at least 18 months more. The Hungarian Presidency managed to ensure that the European Parliament and the Council reached a first reading agreement on the relevant proposal of the Commission, and we expect that the Council will accept it on 27 May. This will ensure ENISA’s operation to continue until the agreement is concluded in term of modernisation too. This is an indisputable accomplishment of the Hungarian Presidency".

/Mr Nyitrai is the Hungarian Minister of State for Information and
Communication