When Internet connections failed in many places after the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley in July, Elon Musk was there.

In just a few days, his company, Starlink, set up three dozen stations that would allow people to connect to the Internet via satellite.

For Musk, this was the perfect advertisement.

He wants to put 20 to 30 billion dollars into his satellite-based Internet.

Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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A network of up to 50,000 satellites could eventually bring the Internet to the most remote corners of the world.

2,000 Starlink satellites are already in low-Earth orbit.

Jeff Bezos' Amazon is also investing billions in the rival project "Kuiper".

Russia and China have announced their own projects for broadband from space.

6 billion euros

The European Union must not be left behind in this regard.

At least the EU Commission and above all the French Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton are convinced of this.

The Commission intends to invest almost 6 billion euros, of which 2.4 billion from the EU budget, in building its own satellite-based Internet.

In doing so, she wants to put an end to the "white spots" that still exist in the rural areas of rich EU countries such as Germany in terms of Internet access, which is also important for medium-sized companies.

But that's not all.

"We want to create a backup for our infrastructure and increase our independence from third parties and cyber security," says Breton.

The company's own satellite infrastructure should enable secure communication, for example through quantum encryption, and thus also bring additional benefits for governments and the military.

Don't be left behind

In addition, the “Initiative for a Safer Internet” is industrial policy, just like the “Chip Law” that was just presented.

"As a pan-European project, it will enable our many start-ups and Europe as a whole to be at the forefront of technological innovation," says Breton.

The EU should not be left behind by the Americans and Chinese again.

All of this is closely coordinated with the French government.

The EU Council Presidency, which she has held for six months since January, traditionally uses this to promote a stronger EU space policy.

This Wednesday she invited to the space summit in Toulouse.

The interests of the French space industry are also at stake.

MEP Angelika Niebler (CSU) is already warning: "Not only large French industry should benefit from the project, but also small and medium-sized companies and start-ups."

In order to reach the 6 billion euros, the money from the EU budget is to be supplemented with funds from the member states and private money.

It is still unclear how many satellites the EU ultimately wants to put into orbit.

Unlike the American projects, however, the Commission only wants to cover Europe.

Because Africa, which is on the same longitude, can also be supplied without any problems, the Commission is also selling it as part of its global infrastructure policy.

Above all, it should be quick.

The Commission intends to start rolling out the project as early as next year.

The first offerings and tests of quantum encryption in orbit are scheduled to start in 2025.

In 2028, the European answer to the satellite-based Internet from the United States and China should be in place.

Ambitious goals

That's ambitious.

The Commission fully accepts that.

Ambitious is said to be mild, according to the industry.

The commercial benefit is also questionable.

The project sounds like a desperate attempt to be part of everything.

"We run the risk of spending a lot of stupid money just to satisfy our ego," says Sven Sünberg, who operates the ground stations required for the satellite-based Internet with Media Broadcast Satellite GmbH.

Especially since the money can only be spent once and is missing elsewhere.

"In general, European industry is much better than many think."

The British project Oneweb, in which the French company Eutelsat is involved, sent 34 satellites into space just a few days ago, which are to be used for the satellite-based Internet.

In total there are already more than 400. The Europeans are also among the pioneers when it comes to preliminary products.

Two German companies, Tesat and Mynaric, play a key role in the promising future transmission of huge amounts of data between satellites using laser beams.

control over communication networks

Daniel Voelsen from the Science and Politics Foundation thinks the initiative is good.

The global infrastructure of the Internet is undergoing massive change due to satellite-based solutions and is advancing into completely new dimensions.

"If the EU doesn't get involved there, it threatens to become dependent on the USA and China again," he warns - in line with Breton's intentions.

There is a threat of a further concentration of economic power and with it a hitherto unknown degree of political control over the global communication networks.

A satellite constellation under EU control could counteract this and also make an important contribution to the security of government communications.

As with the Galileo satellite program, it is also about maintaining expertise in Europe and thus the ability to act politically.

Incidentally, US companies also benefited from state aid.

Starlink, for example, is supported by the money Musk receives for Space-X.