Erica Moret, Senior Researcher at the Global Governance Centre, recently participated to an online panel debate organized by the Hague Program for Cyber Norms on the topic of cyber sanctions.

In October 2020, the European Union followed in the footsteps of the United States and imposed its cyber sanctions for the very first time. These are one of the instruments available in the Union’s cyber diplomacy toolbox and are specifically designed ‘to prevent, discourage, deter and respond to continuing and increasing malicious behaviour in cyberspace’. While representing an important step forward for the Union’s commitment to uphold a ‘rules-based order’ in cyberspace as a single voice, the adoption of cyber sanctions raises however questions on their effectiveness and their broader strategic function.

This original online panel debated the current developments on cyber sanctions within the EU, questioned their effectiveness as legal instruments; and explored how they intersect with the EU’s broader strategic and geopolitical role as normative power in cyberspace.