en.Wedoany.com Reported - The European Commission announced on June 23, 2026, that it has approved €5.8 million in funding to establish the first two regional cable hubs in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean, while simultaneously launching a €40 million tender aimed at enhancing the repair capacity of European submarine communication cables. These measures are part of the EU's Action Plan on Submarine Cable Security, designed to strengthen the security and resilience of Europe's critical submarine data and energy cables, and to improve the ability to monitor, identify, and respond to threats to critical submarine infrastructure. The action plan was released in February 2025, following multiple submarine cable incidents in the Baltic Sea region.
Regarding the Baltic Sea regional hub, the European Commission has provided €2.5 million in funding to strengthen monitoring and response mechanisms in the region. Specific measures include enhancing national and cross-border security operations centers, improving information-sharing platforms, and boosting the capacity to identify and prevent threats to critical marine infrastructure in the Baltic Sea area. Finland will coordinate the hub together with Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, and Sweden. In the Mediterranean region, the new hub will receive €3.3 million in funding for shared procedures, decision-making structures, and a federated technical platform, enabling near real-time information exchange, anomaly detection, and cross-border coordinated responses. Italy will coordinate the hub together with Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. The European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) is responsible for managing the tenders and disbursing the funding for the establishment of these hubs.
At the same time, the European Commission announced the launch of a €40 million tender, funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF Digital), aimed at ensuring a "rapid and effective response" to severe disruptions of submarine cables in emergency situations. The initiative focuses on the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and other sea areas, and will fund adaptable modules that can be strategically deployed in the relevant waters. According to the European Commission, these modules can be quickly installed and deployed by existing repair vessels, to be used at the request of the new regional monitoring centers or other competent authorities. This follows a €20 million pilot tender launched in the spring of 2026 to fund repair modules for the Baltic Sea.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, stated that by establishing the first regional cable hubs in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean, and by providing funding for cable repair capabilities, Europe is moving towards greater capacity, strengthening its ability to detect threats, act faster, and respond collectively. This is Europe's investment in its own security, resilience, and sovereignty. The plans for these two hubs reflect the clear commitment of the relevant member states to strengthen cooperation in the face of new security realities.
Regarding next steps, the European Commission stated that new tenders will be published in the autumn of 2026 for establishing regional cable hubs in sea areas not yet covered, or for other member states to join these two newly established regional cable hubs. The funding is provided under the tender framework managed by the ECCC, with resources from the Digital Europe Programme. Applicants for the CEF Digital tender can submit their applications before 17:00 on October 8, 2026. Finally, the European Commission noted that under the current CEF Digital multiannual work programme (2024-2027), a total of €533 million has been allocated to submarine cable projects, of which €186 million has been allocated to 25 projects. From 2021 to 2024, CEF Digital provided €420 million in funding for 51 backbone cable connection projects.
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