Italy was among the first seven European Union member states to sign the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) Declaration at the Digital Assembly in Bucharest, Romania, on June 13, 2019. The other founding signatories were Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, and Spain.
By signing the declaration, the seven countries agreed to work together and with the European Commission to explore how to develop and deploy a quantum communication infrastructure across the EU within ten years. The planned infrastructure would integrate quantum technologies into conventional communication networks, using both terrestrial fiber-optic links and a satellite-based space segment developed with the European Space Agency.
All 27 EU member states eventually joined the initiative. The EuroQCI is designed to protect critical infrastructure, government institutions, data centers, hospitals, and energy grids through quantum key distribution, a secure method of exchanging encryption keys based on quantum physics.