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Contributed Article
by Marc Tachelet, Director of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
Since 2021, CEF-Digital has invested €615 million in 75 projects, spanning 18 EU countries and 10 overseas territories. These cables are strategic and critical assets, designed to:
- leverage private investment in European digital infrastructure;
- provide resilient high-speed coLnectivity to all EU citizens, including in the Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories; and
- ensure sovereignty of our backbone network, as well as the connections with key partner countries.
This year again, the CEF-Digital programme continues striving for these objectives, with two new calls for proposals open until 30 June 2026:
- A call (CEF-DIG-2026-GATEWAYS) with a substantial budget of €180 million has been launched to support the deployment or replacement of backbone networks – in particular submarine cables but also terrestrial backbone fibre networks and ground stations for satellite communications – that address security risks, vulnerabilities, and resilience in the EU core digital infrastructure.
- Additionally, a €20 million call (CEF-DIG-2026-SMART-CABLES) is open, aiming to enhance existing submarine telecommunications infrastructure with SMART (Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications) capabilities. This initiative seeks to integrate sensors and other monitoring components measuring temperatures, detecting acoustic or other signals, and more, thereby collecting real-time ocean and seismic data as well as improving the monitoring functionalities of these critical communication networks.
Europe has a vision for the future which was exposed last year in the form of an EU Action Plan on Cable Security. One of its measures called on the European Commission to set up a group of experts from EU countries and the cybersecurity agency ENISA to identify the priority areas where the EU should focus to enhance our resilience, and where private investment alone may not be commercially viable. Last February, this work resulted in the publication of a list of Cable Projects of European Interest (CPEIs), together with the Cable Security Toolbox, which recommends a set of mitigation measures to address the identified risk scenarios based on threats, vulnerabilities, and dependencies. This is where we will focus our investment over the coming years.
Europe, like all other continents, needs to be agile and respond to the changing geopolitical situations. Some submarine cables connecting Europe have suffered multiple incidents in recent years, which has raised awareness regarding the criticality and vulnerability of submarine data cables.
With the mobilisation of all operators involved in this section, I am confident that, together, we can better coordinate our actions, address those threats, and ultimately enhance the resilience of all submarine cable infrastructures.
Marc Tachelet, the newly appointed Director of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) is leading the EU’s ambitious investments in digital infrastructure through the CEF-Digital programme. Attending Submarine Networks EMEA for the first time, he will in his keynote address how Europe is determined to continue owning, securing, expanding and fixing its digital gateways.
You can find HaDEA at Stand 2 on the show floor at #SubNetsEMEA
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