SECURITY: EU-Half A Billion To Go On Cable Defences As Baltic Incidents Continue

Wires reporting comments from European Commission Exec VP for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen regarding the investigation by Swedish police of suspected sabotage of a telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea. Virkkunen says "We have been informed about the new cable breach and are following the investigation", adding the EU "will not accept these hybrid actions against us...Our submarine cable action plan is not only for the Baltic Sea area, it's for all of Europe." 

• Virkkunen says that the EU will focus investment on the deployment of new cables, as well as establishing a 'Baltic Sea hub' to detect incidents "ideally before they occur" (Ed. Unclear how this might be achieved). Virkkunen says "at least EUR540M" will go into this initiative.
• Reuters: "Swedish police were investigating the matter because the breach had occurred in Sweden's economic zone, police spokesperson Mathias Rutegard told Reuters. "The preliminary investigation relates to suspected sabotage," Rutegard said. It is the third time in recent months that Cinia's C-Lion1 cable was damaged, after it was completely severed in November and December last year."
• Several telecom cables, power lines, and gas pipelines have been damaged in the Baltic in recent months, mainly by commercial ships dragging their anchors. There is speculation among NATO countries that Russia is behind the incidents. Such occurrences present risks to European power and data transfer networks given the substantial number of cables crisscrossing the seafloor (see map below).

Map of Undersea Cables in Baltic and North Seas

Source: Telegeography