BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission said on Tuesday it had unconditionally approved the proposed acquisition of Intelsat by SES, confirming a story Reuters exclusively reported earlier this month.

The $3.1-billion bid made by the European satellite company for its rival will create a major European player to rival Elon Musk's Space X-owned Starlink.

"The Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area," EU's executive arm said in a statement.

Together with other European satellite companies, Luxembourg-headquartered SES is looking for greater scale to compete more effectively with Starlink and Amazon's ( AMZN ) Project Kuiper.