EU – Baltic States, Internet, Security

Britain, the Netherlands, Romania, Finland, Lithuania and Estonia are pressing the bloc to make the decision at next week's EU summit in Brussels.

The EU has a sanctions regime targeting countries for violating nuclear and chemical weapons treaties.

"We urgently need to implement a similar regime to address malicious cyber activity," the group of countries said in a joint letter to other member states, a copy of which was obtained by the LETA/BNS.  

"The pace of events has accelerated considerably, in particular over the past year, including those of last week. This context makes the introduction of such a regime a pressing priority," they said.

The Dutch authorities last week accused Russia of trying to carry out a cyber-attack against the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The international chemical weapons watchdog investigated the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England.