Honest Broker

A morning at the Cyprus Embassy in Dublin, on cyber, Pax Silica, DORA and the year ahead for European resilience.

It was a genuine privilege to spend this morning with His Excellency Ambassador Louis Telemachou at the Cyprus Embassy in Dublin, alongside Peter Oakes of Fintech Ireland. The timing could hardly have been sharper. Cyprus had just handed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union to Ireland, and there was a great deal worth unpacking about what that transition means for European cyber resilience, financial regulation and technology sovereignty.

Conversations like these matter because the hard problems in cyber, fintech and technology security are shared ones — and they are best worked through among trusted partners, in the room, rather than across a press release.

01 — The Threat Picture

‍Cyber crime, operations and the AI race

We opened on the ground truth: cyber crime and the operational reality of defending against it. From an MSSP seat, the threat landscape during a Presidency is anything but abstract. The volume and sophistication of inbound activity rises the moment a member state takes the chair, and the operational tempo that comes with it is felt directly by the teams doing the defending.

Much of the discussion turned on the shift toward AI-enabled tradecraft on the offensive side, and the corresponding race across Europe to build defensive and innovation capability that keeps pace. It is a race — and it is not one Europe can afford to spectate.

02 — Regulation in Practice

‍Fintech, RegTech and DORA

The conversation moved naturally into #Fintech and #RegTech across Europe. With #DORA now firmly in force, financial entities and their critical ICT third-party providers are living operational resilience testing, incident reporting and third-party risk management in practice rather than on paper. We covered the wider regulatory weave around it — cyber resilience, anti-money-laundering, and the perennial challenge of turning directive text into working controls.

Cyprus is seeing real momentum here, and it was excellent to hear the perspective of Fintech Cyprus on the innovation, growth and forward-thinking strategy taking shape on the island. There is a clear appetite on both islands to lead rather than follow.

Ireland arrives at the chair as a trusted, neutral voice — well placed to steer the next phase of the Presidency with a steady hand.

— On Ireland as honest broker

03 — The Chair Passes

‍Ireland as honest broker

A recurring theme was Ireland's standing as an honest broker: trusted, neutral in the right sense, and credible on the questions that matter. The cyber security challenges faced during any Presidency demand exactly that kind of steady, principled leadership, and there was real optimism about Ireland carrying the mantle Cyprus has just set down — and about the tone it will set for the timeline ahead.

04 — Silicon & Sovereignty

‍The Pax Silica Declaration

We also dug into the Pax Silica Declaration, the US-led initiative on AI and supply chain security which the EU — acting through the European Commission — formally signed onto only days ago. As AI reshapes economies and societies, secure and resilient silicon supply chains matter more than ever. Pax Silica aims to strengthen those chains and improve coordination among trusted allies and partners.

Context - Pax Silica

Launched by the United States in December 2025, Pax Silica is a non-binding political declaration coordinating AI semiconductors, critical minerals and advanced technology among trusted partners. The EU signed on in late June 2026, joining a growing group of signatories.

For Brussels it lands alongside the wider Technological Sovereignty Package and Chips Act 2.0 — and it has not been without debate about the balance between coordination and autonomy.

For European business, the initiative is not only about reducing risk. It is about opportunity — supporting prosperity, technological progress and economic security. For anyone operating in critical technology supply, the direction of travel now looks set, and it is worth watching closely.

05 — One Discipline

‍Where aerospace meets the rest

From an Intercept Aerospace vantage point, much of this converges. Supply chain integrity, secure infrastructure and resilient operations are the same discipline whether the domain is financial services, critical national infrastructure or aviation. The threads that ran through this morning — resilience, trusted partnership, sovereignty — are precisely the ones that define serious security engineering today.

My thanks to Ambassador Telemachou and the Cyprus Embassy for the warm welcome and the depth of conversation. Mornings like this are a reminder that these are shared problems, and that trusted partnership is how they get solved.

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