BRUSSELS, June 10 (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.