The European Commission offered EU member states to approve negotiations with Ukraine regarding its participation in the government's satellite communications program, known as GOVSATCOM.
The European Union's GOVSATCOM platform is designed to provide secure satellite communications capabilities by pooling and sharing existing satellite resources of Member States and accredited private operators. The system allows access to capacities, provided by or EU countries, which own government satellite assets, such as France, Italy, Spain and Luxembourg, among others, or by private European satellite operators.
The new initiative aims to provide Ukraine with access to fast, reliable and secure satellite communication from the facilities of the member states to support its defense and resilience against Russia. The proposal aims to deepen the partnership between the EU and Ukraine, which is not a member state, as well as promote stability across the continent. At its current stage of implementation, EU GOVSATCOM relies on existing national and commercial satellite systems. If this capacity turns out to be insufficient to meet the growing demand, the second phase may involve the development of new space infrastructure or capabilities through one or more public-private partnerships after 2025 year.
For Ukraine to get operational access to GOVSATCOM and, subsequently, up to IRIS², future EU multi-orbital communication constellation, a number of institutional and procedural steps need to be taken. Ukraine must first submit an official request for EU support, which, in turn, will assess specific capacity needs in Ukraine and the wider Black Sea region. in addition, Ukraine's access to GOVSATCOM will require a formal international agreement, acquisition as government, as well as commercial communication resources from European suppliers and, which is extremely important, security accreditation of the GOVSATCOM center by the Security Accreditation Council of the EU Space Program.
This last requirement can be a hindrance. GOVSATCOM Center, safe European system, connecting users to various national and commercial networks, not yet fully functional, and to start work, it must be accredited. However, the current legal framework operates based on assumptions, that the center will be used only by EU member states. Ago, if the participating countries agree to provide Ukraine with access to GOVSATCOM, this norm, perhaps, will have to review.
Budget issues also remain. GOVSATCOM is not a constellation, and shared service architecture, which allows participating countries to use each other's satellite capabilities. Member States will have to determine, how Ukraine's access will be financed, in particular, whether the costs will be shared, whether to be covered directly from the EU budget or national budgets. No financial details or timelines have been released yet.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission