Companies in the European Union (EU) will become more competitive, both on the domestic market and globally, with the implementation of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), said Luca Tagliaretti, executive director of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC), on Wednesday, at the Bucharest Cybersecurity Conference (BCC2025).

'The Cyber Resilience Act - CRA will do a lot to improve the competitiveness of our companies, both domestically and globally. In this way, we will ensure that products are secure, tested, comply with standards and guarantee that data is protected. This may be a bit difficult, but in the end it offers a great competitive advantage. We should be happy about that. There are funds allocated, as early as 2022, for the implementation of the Cyber Resilience Act. We are now already at the point where a number of projects are starting to work. I would like to mention a few of them. The most important one at the moment is the SECURE Project (Sustainable Careers for Research Empowerment - editor's note), an initiative launched by five National Coordination Centres (NCCs). I want to thank the NCCs who took this initiative, because they anticipated the needs of the market and made sure that they were prepared. I think 22 million euros were mobilised for this. These NCCs will collect data from SMEs, which represent 99% of our economy,' Tagliaretti explained.

The ECCC representative also mentioned that, until the mandatory implementation of the provisions of the Cyber Resilience Act, specialized seminars will be organized to inform beneficiaries, and a dedicated platform will test the knowledge of those targeted.

'The SECURE project will allow everyone to first address the relevant institutions in their country, such as the NCC, to express their interest, after which they will receive funding for technology and for the implementation of the Cyber Resilience Act. There is also a platform available for everyone to test their own skills. There will also be webinars and awareness documentation available to everyone. I truly believe that this is one of the most successful cross-border cooperation projects between Member States,' said Luca Tagliaretti.

The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) was adopted by the European Commission in October 2024 and will become mandatory for manufacturers from December 2027. The document sets a minimum level of cybersecurity for connected products on the European market.

Manufacturers have 36 months to adapt their products to the new requirements, and from December 11, 2027, all new products will have to fully comply with these rules.

The new rules ensure: secure product design, protection against vulnerabilities and support throughout the product's lifecycle (including security updates and patches). These requirements apply to all digital products sold in the EU, whether they are standalone or integrated into other systems.

The National Cybersecurity Directorate (DNSC), with the support of the National Coordination Centre of Romania (NCC-RO) and the National Association for Information Systems Security (ANSSI), is organising, from October 6 to 9, the 2025 edition of the Bucharest Cybersecurity Conference (BCC2025).

The National News Agency AGERPRES is one of the media partners of the event. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea, EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)