The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) is an autonomous, network-based international organisation headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. It was established in 2017 to help participating states understand and counter hybrid threats — coordinated activities that combine conventional and unconventional means (disinformation, cyber operations, economic coercion, election interference, sabotage, migration instrumentalisation) below the threshold of armed conflict.
The Centre was founded by a Memorandum of Understanding signed initially by nine states in April 2017, following calls in the 2016 EU–NATO Joint Declaration (Warsaw) for stronger cooperation against hybrid challenges. Finland hosts the Centre under a 2017 host-country act of parliament. Membership has expanded steadily and includes most EU member states and several non-EU NATO allies; the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Poland, and the Baltic states are among the participants.
The Hybrid CoE is not an EU agency or a NATO body, but it serves both organisations as a practical hub for cooperation under the EU–NATO hybrid cooperation framework. Its work is organised around Communities of Interest covering:
- Hybrid Influence (information manipulation, interference in democratic processes)
- Vulnerabilities and Resilience (critical infrastructure, supply chains)
- Strategy and Defence (deterrence, response options)
Outputs include strategic analyses, tabletop exercises, training, scenario workshops, and the widely cited Hybrid CoE Working Papers and Trend Reports. The Centre also contributes conceptually to NATO's and the EU's evolving hybrid lexicon, including the landscape of hybrid threats model developed jointly with the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and published in 2021.
Funding is shared: Finland covers core costs, while participating states contribute personnel and project funding. The Centre is led by a Director (Finnish national by convention) and overseen by a Steering Board of participant representatives, with the EU and NATO holding observer status. Its growing prominence since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine reflects increased Western focus on grey-zone competition.
Example
In 2022, the Hybrid CoE expanded its training and analysis work for member states in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including studies on energy coercion and information manipulation targeting European publics.
Frequently asked questions
Neither. It is an autonomous international organisation hosted by Finland, but it works closely with both the EU and NATO, which hold observer status on its Steering Board.
Keep learning