Source: European Parliament
The Commission cannot comment on a purported agreement between a Member State and a commercial satellite operator, nor can it speculate on the characteristics of a hypothetical procurement.
Purchase of equipment by Member States falls within the full discretionary power of their competencies in the management of their sovereign secure communication systems.
The rollout of the I nfrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS2)[1] is not impacted by such potential purchases by Member States.
Its objectives are to ensure the provision of governmental services to Member States and to enable EU commercial services. They differ in terms of level of security, frequencies used by the system and protection of governmental users’ data.
The IRIS2 Regulation[2] provides for regulatory obligations to foster competition by ensuring the competitive subcontracting of at least 30% of the value of the contract, in particular to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to stimulate innovation by promoting new entrants’ participation, and to prevent potential distortion of competition.
A dedicated low Earth orbit layer of small satellites is proposed by the IRIS2 concessionaire, to provide hosting services for innovative payloads from third parties.
The concessionaire will promote startup, SME, and new entrant participation in competitive tenders with clear selection criteria.