BEREC Report on the general authorisation and related frameworks for international submarine connectivity

The Ministerial European Data Gateways Declaration, adopted by most European Union Member States in March 2021, highlights the fact that Europe’s digital sovereignty and global competitiveness depend on strong and secure internal and external connectivity and that leveraging both dimensions is a precondition for the European Union to become «the most attractive, most secure and most dynamic data-agile economy in the world».

With Draft BEREC Report on the general authorisation and related frameworks for international submarine connectivity (CN (24) 46), BEREC aims to clarify the general authorisation and related frameworks applicable to international submarine connectivity and to identify possible solutions to promote investment in this sector and to strengthen the European Union’s geostrategic position.

For this purpose, this report:

a) Briefly describes the activities involved in the deployment and operation of submarine cable systems (Section 2);

b) Outlines the applicability of the electronic communications regulatory framework to international submarine cable systems and the powers and experience of national regulatory authorities in this field (Section 3);

c) Identifies other national administrative authorisation procedures applicable to international submarine cable systems (Section 4);

d) Gathers information on initiatives taken at European and national level to promote international submarine connectivity (Section 5).