Spain calls on the European Union to prioritise the development of its own satellite network in the next spectrum auction

The Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López, greets one of his counterparts at the informal meeting of Telecommunications Ministers of the European Union

Sharing a position with France, López stressed the importance of equipping the continent with its own satellite constellation as a matter of "digital sovereignty". Therefore, the minister called for a commitment to a European project in this area. "This is a crucial issue that Spain is raising at this Council meeting. We will not be competitive in the future if we do not have a European model."

López reminded everyone that the European Commission must launch new licenses for the 2GHz spectrum band-used for Mobile Satellite Services-since the current ones expire in May 2027. He called for "things to be done in such a way that we can protect ourselves as Europeans." "Europe needs to strengthen its digital sovereignty and, above all, its connectivity through satellites," he insisted.

To this end, he demanded from the European Commission "transparency and participation from member states" in the preparation of the upcoming auction, which, in López's opinion, should be designed taking into account "technical and economic criteria, but also political and sovereignty considerations." "It is time to decide whether we want our skies to be stronger or more dependent," he added.

Simplify regulations, but do not deregulate

The minister argued that Europe is facing a "historic opportunity" to define its own Artificial Intelligence model, which must be characterised by being "reliable." "There may be other faster or cheaper models, but the European model has to be reliable," he stressed, clarifying that Spain supports greater "simplification" of European regulations, but in no case deregulation.

Although López applauded the European Commission's "efforts" to deploy the 19 European AI factories, the Digital Omnibus, and the Apply AI Strategy, he urged them to "accelerate" the gigafactory project, because it will provide Europe with true supercomputing capacity.

Regarding the protection of minors, the minister noted that Spain, like France, is promoting a national law to prohibit minors' access to social media, although he considered it "ideal" to also have a "European framework" on the matter. "It would be better to have a European age of majority, and I believe that's the opinion of most countries. But we're not going to wait; we have a bill in Parliament" to address a "mental health pandemic" among our young people.

To implement this restriction on access to social media, López emphasised, an age verification tool is needed, like the one Spain is developing, which meets the requirements set by Brussels to ensure these solutions are interoperable among member states.

Non official translation