The European Commission recently presented an action plan to protect submarine cables, those infrastructures that, across the seas, carry, among other things, electrical power and almost all global Internet traffic —two elements that are fundamental not only for the global economy. The initiative became necessary following a series of sabotages of submarine infrastructures in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Already in 2017, then-British MP Rishi Sunak—who would later become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2022 to 2024 — signed a report dedicated to the security issues of submarine cables, highlighting the risks associated with them. The document pointed out, among other things, that the location of these cables is not secret, that international law does not provide specific protection, and that damaging them does not require particular skills or resources, as even normal fishing activities can cause significant damage. Their vulnerability is further increased by the fact that they often traverse deep and hard-to-monitor marine areas. Every year, dozens of submarine cable faults are recorded, mostly affecting telecommunications cables—the most numerous and also the most sensitive to fishing activities and anchor drags. On the seabed, however, there are not only cables carrying Internet traffic: there are also those used for electricity exchange, among others; these are less common but equally strategic: even partial damage can cause significant energy supply disruptions and contribute to increased reliance on more expensive and polluting sources. For this reason, Brussels has chosen to intervene by promoting a coordinated effort involving both national governments and technology companies.
The recent acts of sabotage involving various infrastructures of this kind highlight both their vulnerability and their strategic importance.
In this regard, the Vice President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, recently emphasized the need for an integrated approach based on four main pillars: prevention, detection, response and recovery, and deterrence. The goal is to create—at least at the European level—a more resilient submarine cable network capable of responding promptly to potential damage or sabotage. Essentially, the European Union’s plan aims to better ensure the continuity of essential services — including electricity transmission, among others — even in the event of incidents, through a series of targeted investments. Moreover, the Commission intends to promote the use of so-called "smart cables", equipped with sensors capable of detecting vibrations or temperature variations, identifying anomalies in real time along the entire route. The idea is to have a network of underwater sensors able to promptly report suspicious activities, improving the naval forces’ response capabilities. Additionally, Brussels aims to integrate data from the European Maritime Safety Agency—which monitors ship movements—with data from the Galileo satellites, the European satellite navigation system, and Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation program, with the goal of creating a unified surveillance system for each maritime basin.
In this context, the European Union also intends to promote the so-called "cable diplomacy", a strategic approach aimed at strengthening cooperation with countries that share the same principles of security and transparency in the management of submarine infrastructures. This diplomacy concerns not only fiber-optic cables for telecommunications but also, and especially, electrical cables, with the aim of fostering the development of an integrated and secure European energy market, including in maritime basins. Cables that transmit electricity via the sea — also known as ‘offshore electrical interconnections’ — play a key role in Europe’s energy transition. Through these infrastructures, for example, it is possible to transmit energy produced by North Sea wind farms to industrial areas in Central Europe, or transfer electricity between countries according to seasonal needs: connecting the electrical grids of different countries, thereby balancing energy supply and demand and integrating an increasing share of renewable sources into the electrical system.
