URSULA VON DER LEYEN
TELCO STRATEGY
URSULA VON DER LEYEN
TITLE: PRESIDENT
COMPANY: EUROPEAN COMMISSION
INDUSTRY: GOVERNMENT
Ursula von der Leyen is President of the European Commission. The German politician was her country’ s first female Defence Minister and has led the EU’ s executive branch since 2019.
A regulation for scale and sovereignty At the heart of the new Act lies the ambition to strengthen Europe’ s digital sovereignty while stimulating investment in next-generation networks. The DNA aims to reduce regulatory burdens by up to 50 %, harmonise spectrum management and streamline authorisation regimes for 5G, 6G and satellite services.
The Commission further plans to set mandatory timelines for the decommissioning of copper networks, accelerating the transition to full-fibre infrastructure. The proposal could see 80 % of subscribers migrated by 2028, with the remainder by 2030; a costly but strategically essential shift.
Security is becoming a defining feature. The DNA is expected to embed EU-wide rules on high-risk vendors( HRVs), expanding existing restrictions on suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE to include 6G and virtualised network architectures. It would effectively cement a“ trusted supply chain” requirement across the bloc, reinforcing Europe’ s move toward a“ Fortress Europe” model for critical digital infrastructure.
Industry leaders demand decisive action The coalition of CEOs highlighted that without reform, Europe’ s operators cannot compete with their US and Asian counterparts. Since 2015, European mobile providers have invested more than € 500 billion(~ US $ 578 billion) in network deployment; however, adoption remains slow, with only 2 % of Europeans using standalone 5G, compared to 25 % in the United States and over 77 % in China.
Without the ability to scale, they warned,“ Europe’ s industrial powerhouses, from automotive to fintech, may soon come to resemble houses of cards without the connectivity to explore, scale and exploit new services.”
The letter advocates for a new regulatory model that strikes a balance between competition and conditions for large-scale investment, thereby enabling convergence across fibre, mobile, cloud and edge infrastructure.“ Your rallying call to the Commission was a year ago,” the CEOs remind President von der Leyen.“ We are ready to support you so the EU enters 2026 with a clear action plan for accelerating investment in Europe’ s digital networks as the key facilitators of growth, security, innovation, resilience and competitiveness.”
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