On February 26, during the open public session of the SEEWQCI project kick off, the Secretary General of Telecommunications and Post at the Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence Konstantinos Karantzalos, addressed the audience with opening remarks, followed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Harry Theoharis, the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy of Cyprus Georgios Komodromos, the Technology Diplomat and Programme Director ad Interim for the Programme Quantum Safe, of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Ferdinand Griesdoorn, and the Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Athens Paul Schmit.
National security was a focal point of the discussions, featuring contributions from Evangelos Zacharakis, Director of the Centre for Technological Support Development and Innovation of National Intelligence Service of Greece (KETYAK), Alexis Hadjiprokopis, Director of National Security (NSA) of the Republic of Cyprus, Marian Kalliga, Digital Security Authority of Cyprus, and Bas Dunnebier, General Intelligence and Security Service, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations of the Netherlands (AIVD). Victor Roman Oliver of the European Commission (DG CONNECT) presented the European framework and the strategic vision for EuroQCI. Further contributions were made by Professor Εmeritus of the National Technical University of Athens & Chairman of the Board of Directors GRNET Stefanos Kollias, by the CEO of the Hellenic Space Center Nikos Sergis, by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FORTH Vassilis Charmandaris, and by Athanasios Marousis of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA).
A high level panel followed, bringing together Konstantinos Karantzalos, Evangelos Zacharakis, Dimitris Katsianis (Deputy Chairman, GRNET), Ferdinand Griesdoorn, and Victor Roman Oliver. The discussion underscored the institutional and operational challenges of cross-border, quantum-secure connectivity. Next, the National Coordinators of the participating countries, namely Ilias Papastamatiou (Greece, Coordinator of SEEWQCI and HellasQCI GRNET), Kyriakos Kalli (CYQCI, CUT Cyprus), Konstantin Ivanov (BGQCI, NCOM Bulgaria), and Charlotte Postma (TNO the Netherlands), outlined their respective national strategies and the interconnection of the National Quantum Communication Infrastructures (NatQCIs).
The event’s open session was moderated by journalist Yannis Rizopoulos.
A huge contribution to the event was made by the participation and contributions of a total of 13 representatives from 19 EuroQCI CEF projects who are currently in the second implementation phase, including TransEuroOGS, QUAPITAL, SBIQCI, BAT-QCI, PIONIER-Q-SAT, ROGS, CEQCI, BeneluxQCI, QCI-AT-CZ-PL, QCI-SK-CZ-PL, IberianQCI, and QRUSOE. Their involvement showcases the scale, interoperability, and cohesion of the European effort to develop a unified, quantum-secure communications infrastructure.
The EuroQCI CEF projects’ panel comprised from Ilias Papastamatiou (SEEWQCI), Torsten Siebert (TransEuroOGS), Stefan Jumarea (SBIQCI), Martin Stierle (BAT-QCI), Felix Tiefenbacher (QUAPITAL), Michał Marks (PIONIER-Q-SAT), and Alin Bogdan (ROGS), placing great emphasis on the interoperable and pan-European character of the initiative.