27 November 2024
EUCCS Preparation, previously known as BroadEU.Net, supports the establishment of the
European Critical Communication System (EUCCS): a pan European mission critical high-capacity mobile communication system for law enforcement, emergency response and all
Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) responders.
Following a Call for Tender launched in August 2024, today the group of buyers representing
15 national authorities, and led by PSCE, officially announce the award and conclusion of
the contracts with 4 winning contractors:
The contractors will be working in the frame of EUCCS Preparation to build the grounds for
deployment and operational use of EUCCS. The first contract period concludes on 30th June 2025. 8 instances of 3GPP standardised Mission Critical (MCX) services will be managed by 8 of our 15 partnering national authorities.
These systems will be evaluated by a series of tests and evaluation activities to assess the
functionality, and initial interconnection, between contractor solutions. The second contract
phase is expected from July 2025 until September 2026 and will work towards increasing the
number of nationally managed MCX services, to include 4 more countries and working towards
interconnection between the different standardised deployments, managed by the different
national authorities.
During the first phase, each awarded team will provide MCX services for two countries, and
provide the interconnect between them to realise international communication groups between
the differently managed systems :
These testbeds will then be incrementally interconnected to assess the interoperability
between different systems. They will be tested according to the national capabilities of the
countries involved. This will build the confidence in the technical maturity of the 3GPP MCX
services and will support, in the near future, the establishment of the EUCCS.
The national test management teams of these 8 countries will work closely with the
contractors. The solutions will be trialled and evaluated by a large group of practitioners,
representing different public safety sectors (Police, Fire Services and Emergency) across
several European countries. Our Operational Procedures Team (OPT) aim to explore
operational procedures that will make most effective use of EUCCS’. They provide the real
user needs and feedback from their experience using these services which is crucial as we
prepare for EUCCS.
The winning bidders, now contractors, will be presented in person during the PSCE
Conference held in Brussels on 4th & 5th December 2024. Introduction of the winning
contractors, the next steps of the programme as well as the political context within which
EUCCS Preparation operates will be presented in a dedicated session on 5th December,
14h00-16h00 CET.
The political context
The work of EUCCS Preparation builds on the work that PSCE has led alongside DG Home
as coordinator of BroadMap, BroadWay projects and BroadEU.Net and it falls under one of
the priorities highlighted by the newly re-elected President of the European Commission,
Ursula Von De Leyen, in her political guidelines presented in July 2024 (1).
In September 2024, the Mission Letter to Magnus Brunner, new Commissioner for Home
Affairs indicates his mission “to develop and deploy a new European Critical
Communication System to be used by public authorities in charge of security and
safety” (2).
The European Commission DG Home, established the Mission critical Expert Group. Experts
are engaged from all EU and Schengen Member States with the mission to assist the
European Commission in the preparation of legislative proposals and policy initiatives to
support the establishment of EUCCS (3)
Finally, in November 2024, Former President of Finland, Sauli Niinnisto, presented a key
report to President von der Leyen: ‘Safer Together: Strengthening Europe’s Civilian and
Military Preparedness and Readiness’, within which the EUCCS is presented to ‘securely
connect all EC Civil security and public safety authorities across borders’ (4)
References:
(1) Political Guidelines for the next European Commission 2024-2029, presented in July 2024:
https://commission.europa.eu/about-european-commission/president-elect-ursula-von-der-leyen_en
(2) Mission Letter to Magnus Brunner (page 6): https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/ea79c47b-22f8-4390-a119-
5115dc40fc3e_en?filename=Mission%20letter%20-%20BRUNNER.pdf
(3)https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/expert-groups-register/screen/expert-groups/consult?lang=en&groupID=3908
(4) Safer Together: Strengthening Europe’s Civilian and Military Preparedness and Readiness’, Chapter on ’Strengthen information sharing and communication: https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/5bb2881f-9e29-42f2-8b77-
8739b19d047c_en?filename=2024_Niinisto-report_Book_VF.pdf
