Cyprus signed the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) Declaration of Cooperation in December 2019, joining eight other EU member states that adhered to the initiative at the end of that year. Croatia, Greece, Finland, France, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden also signed during this round. The declaration had originally been launched in June 2019 at the Digital Assembly in Bucharest, with Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Spain as the initial signatories.
According to the European Commission announcement, the signatories agreed to explore, together with the Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA), the development and deployment of a quantum communication infrastructure across Europe within ten years. The initiative would link sensitive public and private communication assets across the EU using quantum technologies to ensure secure transmission and storage of information.
A Cyprus representative stated at the time that “Cyprus welcomes and joins such initiatives that benefit all Member States.” The EuroQCI would consist of a terrestrial segment using fiber communication networks and a space segment based on satellites, with quantum key distribution (QKD) as the first planned service.