Paris, 25 May 2021. – The European commissioner for internal market, Thierry Breton, does not see Eutelsat involved in the European broadband satellite constellation due to its investment in OneWeb, the Financial Times (FT) reports.
“We took good note of their decision to participate in a project that is in direct competition with the European initiative. I do not see how, structurally, an entity can have stakes in two competing projects,” the FT quotes Breton from a launch event of the new European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).
The new EU constellation is “absolutely critical for our autonomy, for our sovereignty, for our future. So, we will not compromise,” Breton added, according to the FT.
Eutelsat invested half a billion euros in OneWeb in April.
The European Commission wants Europe to launch its own satellite broadband constellation and is conducting a feasibility study through the European Space Agency (ESA). Eutelsat is part of the industry consortium which runs the study for ESA.
