At the Digital Assembly, 7 Member States agreed to work together to explore how to make available a quantum communication infrastructure in Europe, to boost European capabilities in quantum technologies, cybersecurity and industrial competitiveness.

At the Digital Assembly in Bucharest, Romania, representatives of 7 EU countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Spain) signed a declaration agreeing to explore together, over the next 12 months, how to develop and deploy a quantum communication infrastructure (QCI) across the EU within the next ten years. This infrastructure would enable information and data to be transmitted and stored ultra-securely, and link communication assets all over the EU. It would integrate quantum technologies and systems into conventional communication infrastructures, and consist of two elements: an earth-based component making use of existing fibre communication networks linking strategic sites at national and cross-border level, and a space-based component to cover long distances across the EU and other continents.

The first service to make use of this new infrastructure will be Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). QKD is an extremely secure form of encryption: it uses the principles of quantum mechanics to provide the sender and recipient of an encrypted message with an intrinsically secure random key in such a way that an attacker cannot eavesdrop or control the system. QKD can secure confidential data, power grids, government communications and digital transactions, even against crypto code-breaking by the quantum computers of the future.

more information at: https://ec.europa.eu/