European defence beneath the seas: the EU Commission launches a €40 million call for tenders for submarine cables

Brussels – A €40 million call for proposals to boost Europe’s capacity to repair submarine communication cables, and funding of €5.8 million to establish the first two regional cable hubs in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The European Commission stated in a press release that it is providing funding for the construction and maintenance of submarine cables to “ensure a rapid and effective response to major submarine cable outages in emergency situations.” Henna Virkkunen, 

Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, emphasises that “we are strengthening our ability to detect threats, act more swiftly, and respond together: this is Europe investing in its own security, resilience, and sovereignty.” 

It all began in February 2025, when the European Commission published an EU action plan on cable security, a necessary measure in response to incidents involving submarine cables in the Baltic region. With these first regional cable hubs, Europe is “strengthening its ability to build a near real-time situational picture in a sea basin.” 

With €2.5 million in funding, the Baltic Sea regional hub will aim to strengthen “regional surveillance and response mechanisms.” This centre will be coordinated by Finland in collaboration with Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden. As for the Mediterranean hub, with €3.3 million in funding, the aim will be to “combine shared procedures and decision-making structures with a federated technological platform, enabling the exchange of information in near real time, the detection of anomalies and a coordinated response to cross-border incidents.” This hub will be managed by Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.

 The call for proposals for the repair of submarine cables, on the other hand, will be funded by the  Connecting Europe Facility – CEF Digital.

Focusing on the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and other sea basins, this instrument funds adaptable modules that will be strategically positioned to serve these basins. This follows the European Commission’s presentation of a new cable security instrument, which includes risk mitigation measures and a list of cable projects of European interest (CPEI). At the same time, Brussels has amended an existing instrument to allocate €347 million to strategic projects relating to submarine cables. This included a first pilot call for proposals worth €20 million, launched in spring 2026 to fund repair modules in the Baltic Sea.