On Thursday, MEPs warned that reducing defence budgets as well as downgrading security policies could lead to a strategic decline in the EU.
MEPs said in a resolution that the EU needs to respond and adapt global security threats and use all existing means to do so and avoid delegating its security to others.
They suggested that strengthening and building Europe’s capabilities would help the technological sector and slow a loss of expertise in the defence area.
"The European Union cannot indefinitely delegate its security to others," said Security and Defence subcommittee chair Arnaud Danjean. "The economic crisis must not become a pretext to give up defence policy efforts. To avert an individual and collective strategic decline, European countries must use the CSDP and all its tools to buttress their own defence capacities."
MEPs also stressed that cyberspace attacks are a major threat to the "security, defence, stability and competiveness of the EU."
The UK government has increasingly become concerned about the improvement of data security. Talks took place in parliament today with Crispin Blunt MP speaking on ways to improve the way data is used across public and private sectors.
"Data security is one of the biggest issues facing businesses and Government in the modern world," Blunt said. "We need to highlight how data can be used to boost the economy, while still protecting people’s privacy."
Blunt said that the public and private sectors both have an important responsibility in communicating security credentials to help people become more aware about the importance of data security.
Canon, who sponsored the event, revealed research which showed that only 12% of consumers think organisations are doing enough to protect their data.
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