Romania could become an example for Europe in the field of digitalisation, and establishing a Ministry for Digital Transformation would be an important step, as it is no longer appropriate in the era of Artificial Intelligence for digitalisation to remain a secondary responsibility within the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism, chairman of the Senate Committee for Communications, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence Vasile-Ciprian Rus told the conference “Digitalisation and Cybersecurity – Cyber Threats in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”.

“Cluj city may be an example in terms of digitalisation, but I believe Romania itself can become an example for Europe. Whether we are talking about the ECCC, various ministries, the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania (ADR), or the Special Telecommunications Service (STS), the players are good. What is truly missing in this country is a coach – someone capable of coordinating them, training them and showing them how to work together to deliver results,” Rus said.

“It would be an important step to finally establish a Ministry for Digital Transformation. In the era of Artificial Intelligence, we cannot have all digitalisation matters managed by a Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism where digitalisation is effectively an afterthought,” he remarked.

“If we want results, every team – whether ECCC, the National Directorate for Cyber Security (DNSC), or others – is already training well and has excellent resources. What we lack is a vision capable of bringing everyone together and teaching them how to operate as one team. We are living in the age of Artificial Intelligence. I do not believe anyone can seriously dispute that. Any attempt to ignore or fail to keep pace with technological developments in the AI era will only hinder our progress,” he argued.

Rus noted that Romania has transposed and implemented the NIS2 Directive, but the real priority is protection and resilience, especially as cybersecurity challenges accelerate in the age of Artificial Intelligence, and explained that systems must be secure by default and secure by design.

Representatives of public authorities and professional associations took part on Jun 22 in the 10th edition of the conference “Digitalisation and Cybersecurity – Cyber Threats in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”.