“It is time to decide whether we want our skies to be stronger or dependent,” Spain’s Digital Transformation Minister Óscar López said at a meeting of the EU’s digital ministers last month, backed by France in calling to save the coveted frequencies for European companies in the name of sovereignty. “It is time to make European satellite industry great again.”
The decision will give an edge to European industry, which is increasingly betting on satellites to provide mobile communications and broadband from low-Earth orbit and fill coverage gaps across Europe. It would also land just before the EU is expected to present a much-anticipated tech sovereignty package of proposals to reduce the bloc’s reliance on foreign technology.
The Commission, through secondary law, could also open the EU-oriented frequencies to “geographically neighbouring countries” like the United Kingdom and Norway, the proposal said.
But squeezing U.S. firms out of the band could trigger retaliation from Washington. The head of the U.S. communications regulator previously warned against measures seen as unfairly discriminating against American space companies.
“In the changing geopolitical situation, EU-wide satellite connectivity becomes synonymous with resilience, security, and capability,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told POLITICO in a statement on Tuesday. “Satellite connectivity is a key piece of our technological sovereignty, our security, and our defence, as also highlighted by IRIS2,” he added, referring to the EU’s future satellite constellation to provide secure and high-speed broadband capacity.
Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius called for the flagship project to get a slice of the frequencies in an interview with the Financial Times last week.
The proposal will still have to be negotiated by lawmakers in the European Parliament and EU governments in the Council. The Commission could also propose extending the current licences to give institutions time to agree on the new allocation procedure and put it into effect.
This article was updated to include details of the published proposal and comments by Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen.