COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION (EU) 2023/1053

of 30 May 2023

laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) 2023/588 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards operational requirements for governmental services provided under Union Secure Connectivity Programme and its service portfolio

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2023/588 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2023 establishing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme for the period 2023-2027 (1), and in particular Article 9(2) and Article 10(4) and (5) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) The Union Secure Connectivity Programme, established by Regulation (EU) 2023/588, has the objective of ensuring the provision and long-term availability of worldwide-uninterrupted access to secure, autonomous, reliable and cost-effective satellite governmental communication services to governmental users by establishing a secure connectivity system under civil control.

(2) Operational requirements of the Union Secure Connectivity Programme should be laid down, in the form of technical specifications and implementation plans for governmental services related in particular to crisis management, surveillance and key infrastructure management, including diplomatic and defence communication networks and other governmental users’ needs.

(3) The service portfolio for the governmental services should be established, including services restricted to government authorised users based on the governmental infrastructure, and also services to governmental users based on the commercial infrastructure, such as assured worldwide low latency service or worldwide narrowband service. The service portfolio for the governmental services should take into account the service portfolio of the government satellite communication (‘GOVSATCOM’) services established within the framework of Regulation (EU) 2021/696 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2).

(4) The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Programme committee established by Article 107 of Regulation (EU) 2021/696, in the GOVSATCOM configuration.

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The service portfolio for governmental services provided under Union Secure Connectivity Programme

1.   The system implementing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme shall be designed to provide or enable the following satellite communications services:

(a) the following services offered to governmental users based on the governmental infrastructure:

(i) Service #1: Robust Worldwide Low-latency Service;

(ii) Service #2: Space Data Relay;

(b) the following services offered to governmental users based on the commercial infrastructure:

(i) Service #3: Assured Worldwide Low-latency Service;

(ii) Service #4: Assured Worldwide Narrowband Service.

The services referred to in the first subparagraph shall comply with the requirements for the predefined profiles for those services set out in the Annex.

2.   The service portfolio of the system implementing the Union Secure Connectivity programme shall be tailored for each service and delivered to the end-users in conformity with the following procurement schemes:

(a) end-to-end service scheme, where the service is provided from the router/switch on the anchor station side, to the router/switch on the user terminal side, including the possibility of providing the external network on the anchor station side;

(b) managed services scheme, where the provision of the service is guaranteed with the exclusion of the terminal.

Article 2

Rules and Operational Requirements for the Provision of Governmental Services

The following rules and operational requirements shall apply for the provision of governmental services:

(1) In terms of resources and participants’ shares:

(a) the resources of the system implementing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme aimed to the provision of the Service #1, Service #2, Service #3, Service #4 defined in the Annex shall extend the Common Union pool defined in Article 2 of the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055 (3). They form an

‘Extended Union Pool’.

(b) the Commission shall set the additional number of tokens (‘SC tokens’) to be added to the GOVSATCOM tokens as defined in Article 2 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055.

(c) the repartition of ‘SC tokens’ among Programme participants shall follow the rules defined in Article 5 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055. However, the repartition of the ‘SC tokens’ between Member States, EU institutions and the crisis margin defined in Article 5(2) may vary.

(2) In terms of allocation of services:

(a) the provision of the services provided by the system implementing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme to the participants shall follow the fixed and dynamic schemes as defined in the Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055.

(b) the allocation of the fixed and dynamic part of Service #1 and Service #2 defined in the Annex shall follow the approach defined in Articles 6(1), (3) and (4), Article 7(1), (5), (6), (7) and (8) and Article 8 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055.

(c) the allocation of the fixed and dynamic part of Service #3 and Service #4 defined in the Annex shall follow the approach defined in Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055.

(d) the services provided by the system implementing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme shall be compensated using tokens. The compensation value in tokens for each service option shall be included in the service proposal made to the Competent GOVSATCOM Authority.

(3) In terms of service profiles, requests and prioritisation:

(a) the service profiles are defined by their primary attributes’ values. The predefined service profiles are set in the Annex.

(b) the users may issue service requests as defined in Article 9 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055.

(c) the requests for services shall follow the rules as defined in Article 9 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055. The GOVSATCOM Hub shall assign the request to the Extended Union pool, which includes the capacity provided by the Union Secure Connectivity Programme.

(d) any conflict associated to the service request, including the need for pre-emption of the services, shall follow the rules defined in Article 11 of the Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055.

(4) In terms of deployment logic:

(a) the system implementing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme shall be conceived as modular and scalable, progressively expanding the space segment according to the evolution of the demand of the services over the service life.

(b) the modularity and scalability of the system implementing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme may include investment from the private sector in accordance with market demand variations.

(c) any replenishment activity at Space or Ground Segment level shall not affect the continuity of the operational services.

Article 3

Entry into force

This Decision shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the

Official Journal of the European Union

.

Done at Brussels, 30 May 2023.

For the Commission

The President

Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1)  

OJ L 79, 17.3.2023, p. 1

.

(2)  Regulation (EU) 2021/696 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing the Union Space Programme and the European Union Agency for the Space Programme and repealing Regulations (EU) No 912/2010, (EU) No 1285/2013 and (EU) No 377/2014 and Decision No 541/2014/EU (

OJ L 170, 12.5.2021, p. 69

).

(3)  Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1055 of 30 May 2023 setting out the rules on the sharing and prioritisation of satellite communication capacities, services, and user equipment to fulfil the function referred to in Article 66(2) of Regulation (EU) 2021/696 of the European Parliament and of the Council (see page 57 of this Official Journal).

ANNEX

Predefined profiles for the governmental services provided under the Union Secure Connectivity Programme

Table 1

Service #1: Robust Worldwide Low-latency Service

Table 2

Service #2: Space Data Relay

Table 3

Service #3: Assured Worldwide Low-latency Service

Table 4

Service #4: Assured Worldwide Narrowband Service