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The Communication contributes to the creation of a European Union that protects, as promised by President Juncker in the 2016 State of the Union speech. It builds on initiatives in the area of defence, such as the European Defence Fund and the unprecedented level of cooperation between the EU-NATO that has developed over the past year.

Significant progress has been made on each of the 22 actions to combat hybrid threats identified last year. The EU has improved its awareness and the information exchange between Member States on these growing security threats, which often combine conventional and unconventional methods, ranging from terrorism and cyber-attacks to disinformation campaigns or media manipulation. The EU has also made headway in protecting critical infrastructure in areas such as transport, energy, cybersecurity, and the financial system, as well as in counter violent extremism and radicalisation. But more remains to be done, as the nature of hybrid threats continues to evolve.

The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini said:"Hybrid threats are a major security concern for the European Union, its Member States and our partners. We are working to improve the awareness of the threats through the EU Hybrid Fusion Cell, to monitor and counter illegal online content and propaganda withour Strategic Communication task forces, to enhance the capacities of third countries and to step up our cooperation with NATO. This is at the core of our Global Strategy adopted last year. The safeguard of our society is a priority for the EU."

Vice-President for Jobs, Growth and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen added: "Following our proposal for a European Defence Fund and the reflection paper on the Future of European Defence, we are taking further steps towards a Security and Defence Union. Increased co-operation to address hybrid threats will make us more resilient. The EU adds value by assisting Member States and partners, relying on a wide range of existing instruments and programmes. Our approach brings together the key actors while fully respecting their different roles and responsibilities."

Elbieta Biekowska, Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, added: "Cooperation in security and defence is not an option it's a must. Europe faces more hybrid, unconventional security challenges than ever. That is why, as the report shows, we are responding an unprecedented level of cooperation between the EU, Member States and NATO to improve resilience, address strategic vulnerabilities and prepare coordinated responses."

As part of the EU's integrated approach to security and defence, the Joint Framework set out a number of actions to prevent, tackle and mitigate the growing challenge of hybrid threats. Work has been taken forward and progress has been made in all areas:

The European Union will continue to use all tools and instruments to address and react to potential hybrid threats, acting as a stronger and more responsive security provider, complementing actions by Member States and partners.

Background

The EU and its neighbourhood are confronted today with the rise of security threats aiming at destabilising our region as a whole. No country can face these challenges alone.

The Juncker Commission made security a top priority from day one. The Commission's 2015 European Agenda on Security specifically recognised the need to counter hybrid threats.

The Commission and the High Representative adopted a Joint Framework on countering hybrid threats in April 2016. 22 concrete actions were put forward. The report published today is looking at their specific implementation.

The EU Global Strategy for Foreign and Security Policy also makes countering hybrid threats a priority, highlighting the need for an integrated approach to link internal resilience with the EU's external actions.

Following the adoption in November 2016 of the European Defence Action Plan, the Commission put forward a series of initiatives which will contribute to strengthening the EU's capacity to respond to hybrid threats. This includes the European Defence Fund, launched on 7 June 2017, with proposed funding of about 600 million until 2020 and 1.5 billion annually thereafter.

The Commission's reflection paper on the future of European Defence presented in June 2017 outlines different scenarios on how to address the growing security and defence threats facing Europe and enhance Europe's own abilities in defence by 2025.

For more information

Joint Report on the implementation of the Joint Framework on countering hybrid threats a European Union response

Joint Framework on countering hybrid threats a European Union response

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Security and defence: Significant progress to enhance Europe's resilience against hybrid threats more work ahead - EU News

A senior German MEP has sided with Theresa May in the Brexit talks, by accusing the EU negotiators of attempting to punish Britain.

Hans-Olaf Henkel accused Michel Barnier, the chief negotiator, of planning to impose a bad exit agreement on Britain as a warning to other countries tempted to leave the EU.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit negotiator, was also guilty of wanting to make a mess out of this whole unhappy situation.

I have the impression, by their public statements, that indeed they would like to set an example, said Mr Henkel, the deputy head of the European Parliament's industry, research and energy committee.

They want to punish Britain and make sure that non-one else is leaving the European Union.

By the very fact that they say that a country which leaves the European Union should not have the same deal as a country which is in the European Union you can demonstrate what they mean.

Mr Henkel, the president of the Federation of German Industries and a former chief executive of IBM, urged other MEPs who enjoy a potential veto of any Brexit deal not to listen to their own negotiators.

His outburst will strengthen the hand of the Prime Minister who has repeatedly accused the EU of seeking to punish Britain and even of a plot to stop Brexit.

The criticism came as the second round of the talks appeared to have run into trouble within 24 hours of resuming in Brussels, over the vexed issue of the so-called divorce bill

EU diplomats have hit out at Britains failure to agree it must pay a hefty financial settlement for Brexit, suggesting the controversy will stall the talks.

Eyebrows were raised after David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, left the talks after just one hour on Monday, leaving the negotiations to his officials.

The agenda for the four-day talks includes the rights of EU citizens in the UK and British ex-pats in the EU and the Northern Ireland border, as well as the exit bill.

Last week, Mr Barnier urged the British side to present detailed proposals on all three priorities before the talks resumed, but there is no evidence that this happened.

Instead, the UK is expected wait to several weeks before formally setting out its position on the bill, using this week's talk to interrogate and challenge the EU's stance.

Mr Henkel is a member of a Eurosceptic grouping in the Parliament and his views on the EUs approach to the talks are not thought to be shared by most European politicians.

Nevertheless, the German MEP called Brexit disastrous, pointing to the controversy over Britains withdrawal from the Euratom nuclear regulator.

He said the UK received funding for worlds largest nuclear fusion experiment, at the Cullen Centre in Oxfordshire, which is of fundamental importance for the world.

I see that the whole project may collapse if this funding doesnt work anymore, Mr Henkel warned.

Both the EU negotiators and the Prime Minister were wrong to believe EU withdrawal meant pulling out of Euratom as well, he insisted.

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Brexiteers are right - the EU is trying to punish Britain for leaving, senior German MEP says - The Independent

MLB

Please understand this BREXITERS This is not something that the EU is doing to the U.K., this is something that the U.K. has chosen to do to itself and to the rest of the EU they have opted to leave,

Posted on 7/19/17 | 12:26 AM CEST

Completely agreed all countries are better of the in the EU just look at a Greece. Right there is proof that EU wins at everything

Posted on 7/19/17 | 2:06 AM CEST

@Madhava Greece joined in 1981. Both GDP and GDP per capita are up since then. They are down since 2008, too. But the article was about how prepared the Brits are, or not, for negotiations.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 3:29 AM CEST

I am a veteran trade negotiator. he said

Yes a veteran for the EU which takes 10 years to do a deal. Nobody else in the world takes 10 years. And the EU has only done trade deals with economies much smaller than iteself, like Canada, and it still took 8 years.

Dont brag about EU incompetence. The rest of the world does not take so long.

@MLB nobody is thinking anything. We think the EU is incompetent which is why we left. We fully expect them to be incompetent whilst we are leaving.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 9:08 AM CEST

10 Years with WTO rules we will be able to rebuild our manufacturing base.

Then EU will want a Partnership Agreement with us.

Doesnt matter anyway Russia will take Kharkiv to Odessa very shortly and finally sink the EU they will sink quicker than the Bismarck as we say in Essex.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 9:38 AM CEST

Deals are always easy if you have a gun in hand and the other party not. They also dont last nor are they efficient. The Soviet bloc is a perfect example. If equal partners sit at a table you have to get to a consensus, a deal that everyone can live with. And that takes time. For Britain to say we are out but lets pretend that for those parts that suit us we are still in just doesnt work. Whitehall will find out that making decisions without consulting Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland will not work and I doubt that they will get it done in two years time. So they will have to take a hard exit and that will really let the dogs loose. Shooting off the hip may work in cowboy films but not in the real world just ask the USA.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 9:46 AM CEST

Actually, the EU is as responsible as others single market does not truly exist, as it is based on the EU definition that includes services, which does not truly exist. You only have to look at the single market to see that what has been in the interests of France and Germany has been taken into consideration. The current state no longer appeals to the UK as it is not in the UKs national interest, but rather than have a debate and make the EU stronger the EU refused to offer reform to DC and it subsequently led to the BREXIT vote. I wonder what will happen to free movement at the point that it is no longer of interest to France and Germany (remember the French are already putting limitations on French speaking for certain contracts and then there is the posted worker directive). Just think of the consequences when Austria close the Italian border and Turkey allow migrants to filter through just to ramp up the pressure for September all because of migrants (and in the Italy example, visa travel).

Posted on 7/19/17 | 10:18 AM CEST

Im not British, but very much a Brexiteer. Whatever deal is struck between Uk and EU, I demand a referendum on it. I will vote no.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 11:22 AM CEST

wow

Yes a veteran for the EU which takes 10 years to do a deal. Nobody else in the world takes 10 years.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Started negotiations in 2005, signed in 2016, eleven years, its main partner, the US, bails out in 2017 ASEANChina Free Trade Area Started negotiations in November 2000, came into effect in January 2010

And the EU has only done trade deals with economies much smaller than iteself, like Canada, and it still took 8 years.

Glad that you mention it, today Canada is running negotiations for FTAs with eight countries or associations, with India the negotiations started in 2010, no sign of a final deal, with Japan, thats five years now, with the Andean Community, well, that started out in 2007, with Singapore, those started out in wait 2001. And so on. Yes, a great big chunk of the planet does indeed take its time when negotiating trade.

Dont brag about EU incompetence. The rest of the world does not take so long.

Thats simply not true, examples of trade deals between two non UE countries taking a decade to be signed are legion. Whats impressive is that the European Union, twenty eight countries mind you, can actually behave like in such a way that those deals can be made and signed in roughly the same amount of time that takes the likes of China, the US or Japan.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 12:55 PM CEST

Thats fine, the EU gets its money settlement at the end of the process of agreeing the future arrangements. If it can wait, we can too.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 1:57 PM CEST

Sintra: the average time the US takes to agree an FTA is actually 8 months. Its actually easy when you try.

Posted on 7/19/17 | 1:59 PM CEST

@Sintra

It is not only the Brits that think this. Here are some headlines for you from around the world:

Canada walks out on European trade talks after impasse reached

If the EU cannot do trade, what can it do? The Economist

Canada is right to be furious about European Union trade negotiations

Whats the Matter With Europe? The New York Times

Francois Fillon blasts European Union as inefficient and useless

EU is inefficient, makes poor decisions: Shore Capital CNBC . com

Criticism mounts over the EUs inefficiency POLITICO

Decision-Making and Disarray in the EU Geopolitical Futures

Corruption across EU breathtaking says the EU Commission BBC News

EU covers up EU corruption Trade Union

Corruption costs EU up to 990 billion a year POLITICO

Is The European Union Too Big And Bound To Fail? Forbes

Cheerio then and start being a bit more sensible and stop being so over emotional for just one day will you please lovely europeans. Its getting tiring over here in the channel. Grow up maybe?

Posted on 7/19/17 | 2:26 PM CEST

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EU ambassador to US: UK doesn't understand Brexit - POLITICO.eu

PARIS (Reuters) - EU judges will have to decide whether Alphabet's Google has to remove certain web search results globally to comply with a previous privacy ruling after France's supreme administrative court referred the issue to the top EU court.

Google has gone head to head with CNIL, the French data protection authority, over the territorial scope of the so-called "right to be forgotten", which requires the world's biggest search engine to remove inadequate or irrelevant information from web results under searches for people's names.

Having been fined 100,000 euros ($115,000) by CNIL in March 2016 for not delisting across national borders, Google appealed to France's supreme administrative court, the Council of State, which on Wednesday passed the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ).

The tech giant has argued that a balance should be found between the right to privacy and freedom of expression, saying that such removals should not go beyond Europe and into countries with different laws on the subject.

French regulator CNIL, however, says that the removals must be global to uphold Europeans' right to privacy because experienced Internet users can circumvent the Google domestic domain where the delisting takes place.

"With today's decision, the Council of State believes that the scope of the right to be delisted poses several serious difficulties of the interpretation of European Union law," the French court said.

The dispute arose after the ECJ ruled in 2014 that search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing comply with the "right to be forgotten". Though Google did so, it only scrubbed results across its European websites such as Google.de in Germany and Google.fr in France, arguing that to do otherwise would set a dangerous precedent on the territorial reach of national laws.

Since 2014, weve worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten ruling thoughtfully and comprehensively in Europe," Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said in a written statement.

"Weve been defending the idea that each country should be able to balance freedom of expression and privacy in the way that it chooses, not in the way that another country chooses."

The CNIL declined to comment.

Last year Google also started delisting results across all its domains -- including Google.com -- when accessed from the country where the request came from.

Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris and Julia Fioretti in Brussels; Editing by David Goodman

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French court refers 'right to be forgotten' dispute to top EU court - Reuters

Support is growing for a second European Union referendum once the final terms of the Brexit deal are clear, according to a new poll that suggests a third of the public now back the proposition.

The survey by ICM pollsters for the Guardian found that momentum is growing around idea of a second referendum advocated by the Liberal Democrats and the Green party to hold another vote in two years time when ministers present the final deal on Britains exit to the public.

When respondents were provided with the statement a second referendum to allow people to decide whether the UK leaves or not, based on the outcome of the negotiations, 32 per cent said they agreed a six point increase on the same survey six months ago.

But enthusiasts of a second referendum still have some way to go in convincing the majority, the poll also suggests, with 46 per cent of respondents agreeing that the UK should leave the bloc regardless of the outcome of the negotiations.

The poll came after David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, entered the second round of negotiations in Brussels but was criticised for taking part in less than a hour of discussions with Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator. Shortly after declaring it was time to get back to work, Mr Davis had returned to London.

According to the results, more people also believed Brexit would have a negative rather than positive impact on the British economy, with 42 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. Despite this, the poll also found that more people were likely to feel joy as opposed to despair when Britain eventually leaves the bloc in March 2019.

On Friday, Tony Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister, admitted there was currently no groundswell for a second referendum on membership of the EU but said it is still entirely possible for the will of the British people to change as the economic effects of a hard Brexit become more apparent.

In an eight-page article on Brexit, Mr Blair also urged politicians to include the option of negotiating for Britain to stay within a Europe itself prepared to reform and meet us halfway on the free movement of people.

Describing Britains exit from the European Union as the biggest political decision since the Second World War, he added: Given what is at stake, and what, daily we are discovering about the costs of Brexit, how can it be right deliberately to take off the table the option of compromise between Britain and Europe so that Britain stays within a reformed Europe?

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Brexit: Support for a second EU referendum is growing, finds poll - The Independent