EU plans first subsea Internet cable directly linking Europe to Greenland

The European Union plans to create the first subsea Internet cable directly connecting Europe to Greenland, with the Pan-Arctic Cable project also proposed to extend to Canada and eventually to Japan and South Korea. The project is described as an EU flagship project in a European Commission joint communication published on October 20, 2026, and it notably bypasses the United States.

Arctic strategy and official backing

The policy document sets out a new European strategy for the Arctic and supports a sovereign, secure and resilient submarine cable connection linking Greenland directly to the EU. It also suggests that like-minded partners such as Canada could serve as a stepping stone for future cable expansion toward Asia. Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who leads the Threats to the Global Maritime Order Initiative, told Ars that the project would have seemed not particularly commercially attractive five years ago, but that its consideration is on trend and a sign of the times. The project gained official support after repeated Trump administration attempts to claim Greenland were settled through a trilateral security agreement between the United States, Greenland and Denmark in September 2026. That agreement preserves Greenland's autonomous territory status within the Kingdom of Denmark while expanding US military access.

Red Sea risk and funding

Europe has also been eyeing new Internet cable routes to Asia because more than 90 percent of communications between Europe and Asia run through undersea cables in the Red Sea, according to TeleGeography. Maintaining such cables has become riskier since open warfare resumed between the Yemeni government and the Houthi faction this year, with Houthi forces having fired missiles and drones at commercial ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait chokepoint and the broader Red Sea. The Pan-Arctic Cable took shape when European companies and research organizations joined forces with a Greenland telecom operator to sign an agreement on developing the project in 2025, according to Submarine Cable Networks. The European Union has already invested $119 million, or 107 million euros, to advance Greenland's secure and sovereign connectivity along with funding the Pan-Arctic Cable plan, according to the new European Commission policy document on Europe's Arctic strategy.

Challenges and cable security

The goal of eventually extending the undersea cable to Japan and South Korea by way of Canada faces considerable challenges, including requiring more European icebreaker ships to support installation and maintenance of the cable in icy Arctic waters. Growing international tensions have coincided with suspicious incidents of Russian- and Chinese-linked commercial ships severing European undersea cables in the Baltic Sea by dragging their anchors for long periods of time. Europe's new Arctic strategy document addresses such security threats by stating that the European Union will establish an Arctic Cable Hub to monitor, protect and support the repair of submarine cables in the North Atlantic-Arctic. It also says the European Union will invest in smart technologies on cables that act as early warning systems for potential threats.

Sources: Ars Technica