Athens, July 28, 2026 – Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Greece’s Minister of National Economy and Finance and current President of the Eurogroup, called on Europe to better use the potential of the radio spectrum in an opinion piece published by the Financial Times. He argued that Europe must overcome the fragmented management of this key resource to create new wealth and remain competitive on the global stage.
Pierrakakis explained that Europe faces limited resources despite its growing ambitions in areas such as defense, artificial intelligence, and the green transition. Traditionally, discussions have centered on how to redistribute existing funds among competing priorities. However, he pointed out that Europe’s greatest achievements came not from redistributing wealth but from creating it, citing the single market and the euro as examples of initiatives that boosted productivity and economic integration.
He highlighted the radio spectrum as a strategic asset crucial to modern technologies. Many applications, including AI, connected factories, and digital public services, rely on it. Nonetheless, the European Union still regulates spectrum through 27 distinct national licensing systems, which undermines telecom companies’ ability to compete globally.
This fragmentation carries growing economic costs. Telecom is no longer just infrastructure but forms the backbone of the digital economy. Technologies like AI, cloud computing, defense communications, and industrial automation require strong networks with high capacity. Yet, providers invest according to varied national auction schedules, license terms, and regulatory rules. This creates uncertainty, raises capital costs, complicates long-term investment plans, and delays network rollouts.
The upcoming transition from 5G to 6G technology presents a rare chance to fix this situation. Key 5G frequency bands will need license renewals across Europe in the coming years, while the upper 6 GHz band (6425-7125 MHz) remains unassigned. Pierrakakis proposed establishing a European Spectrum Union to manage these frequencies jointly. Member states would retain ownership and existing licenses would remain valid until expiration. Future spectrum allocation, however, would happen under coordinated European rules, aligned renewal timetables, and shared technical and security standards.
Such a union would bring multiple benefits: regulatory stability, improved investment planning, lower financing costs, and faster 6G network development. A coherent spectrum policy would strengthen Europe’s telecom ecosystem and technological base, making it a more effective industrial policy.
Pierrakakis also mentioned the financial dimension. Spectrum licensing generates significant public revenues, currently funneled mainly to national budgets. Within the European Spectrum Union, member states could keep part of this income. However, up to 75% of future revenues should flow into the EU budget as a new own resource. The remaining 25% could support a special financing mechanism at the European Investment Bank for connectivity and technology projects.
Thanks to the European Investment Bank’s ability to leverage funds through market borrowing, this 25% could multiply the investment impact many times over. It would help finance AI infrastructure, quantum technologies, and next-generation networks. This approach would expand Europe’s investment capacity and growth potential, aligning with the EU’s new fiscal framework. Today, member states have limited incentives to allocate spectrum revenues to the EU budget since these funds do not count as active revenue measures under EU budget rules. This creates an opportunity to redirect much of their value toward financing European public goods while still allowing states to retain some income.
Pierrakakis emphasized that the goal is not merely to improve spectrum coordination to raise EU funds. It is about completing the single market for connectivity to boost investments, enhance competition in European telecom markets, and enable Europe to achieve the technological scale needed to compete internationally.
Critics argue that spectrum management should remain a national responsibility. Pierrakakis acknowledged this but reminded that many of the European Union’s greatest successes started as national prerogatives before economic realities made deeper integration more effective. The question isn’t whether states can manage spectrum individually but whether fragmentation is the best way to handle such a strategic resource across a continent-scale digital economy. His answer was no.
Historically, European integration advanced through joint management of strategic resources. Coal and steel laid the foundation for Europe’s industrial era. Today, connectivity forms the backbone of the digital economy. The EU budget should not be confined to deciding how to distribute resources but should also facilitate how to create them.
Kyriakos Pierrakakis’s article calls on Europe to seize the chance presented by the 5G-to-6G transition and the untapped 6 GHz spectrum band to create a joint framework for spectrum management. Doing so would unlock new wealth, enhance investment and innovation, and strengthen Europe’s position in the global digital economy.
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