Italy’s central position in the Mediterranean places the country along key digital routes linking Europe with Africa and the Middle East. According to Pastorella, this makes subsea infrastructure a structural asset rather than a marginal technical concern.
The move: Rome has recently brought underwater activities onto the legislative agenda through a draft law now under parliamentary review. The proposal aims to streamline authorisation and monitoring procedures for subsea operations.
- For MP Pastorella, this signals growing institutional awareness, but regulation alone is not sufficient.
- Without a parallel industrial and security strategy, additional bureaucracy risks slowing investment rather than strengthening Italy’s position.
Italy’s starting point is solid. Companies such as Prysmian, a global leader in subsea cable manufacturing, and Sparkle, active in network management and maintenance, anchor Italy within international connectivity networks.
- The establishment of the National Underwater Hub in La Spezia further reflects rising political attention to the underwater domain.
- At the same time, Italy no longer controls the full value chain, with specialised fleets and repair capabilities largely based abroad.
Why it matters: Subsea cables carry the vast majority of global data traffic and are increasingly exposed to physical damage, sabotage and cyber risks. Their protection is complicated by private ownership, multinational co-ownership and routes crossing multiple maritime jurisdictions. For Italy, this turns subsea connectivity into an economic security issue, not just a digital one.
- Pastorella argues that purely national solutions are insufficient. Effective protection requires structured public-private cooperation and closer coordination at the European level, where governance of underwater infrastructure remains uneven compared to more mature cybersecurity frameworks.
The bigger picture: While the EU has advanced on cyber regulation, subsea infrastructure is still governed largely through soft law. The United States, by contrast, has moved more decisively by linking protection, deterrence and industrial development.
- Italy sits between these models, combining strong industrial assets and favourable geography within a fragmented European framework.
What it signals: As Pastorella frames it, Italy does not need to invent a new role in subsea connectivity. The assets are already in place.
- The challenge is aligning regulation, security and industrial policy to transform existing infrastructure into strategic leverage at a time of growing competition over critical networks.
