The European Commission has today launched a proposal for strategies aimed at boosting innovation, ensuring security, and increasing the resilience of digital infrastructures. The future competitiveness of the European Union’s economy lies in the development and maintenance of advanced digital network services and infrastructures. The importance of having wide, secure, and high-speed connectivity is fundamental to facilitate the implementation of emerging technologies such as telemedicine, autonomous driving, predictive building maintenance, or precision agriculture.
In order to open a constructive dialogue on the future of the EU’s digital policy, this set of measures seeks to bring together stakeholders, Member States, and strategic partners to discuss specific proposals. The aim is to reach a consensus that sets the path for ensuring that Europe’s digital infrastructure is ready to face the challenges of tomorrow.
The White Paper “How to successfully address Europe’s digital infrastructure needs?” analyzes the challenges facing Europe in deploying future connectivity networks and presents possible hypotheses to attract investment, foster innovation, increase security, and achieve a true digital single market. The Recommendation on the security and resilience of submarine cable infrastructures presents a set of actions at national and EU level aimed at improving the security and resilience of submarine cables through better coordination across the EU, both in terms of governance and funding.
The EU must encourage a dynamic community of European innovators, driving the development of integrated connectivity and collaborative computing infrastructures. To achieve this goal, the White Paper envisions the creation of a network of “connected collaborative computing” (‘red3C’) to build end-to-end integrated telecommunications and cloud computing infrastructures and platforms that could be used in the development of innovative technologies and AI applications for various use cases. This collaborative approach could be prepared through the creation of large-scale pilot projects or a possible new major project of common European interest (PIICE) in continuous computing.
It is also essential to better leverage synergies between existing initiatives—such as the Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services PIICE—and the funding programs of the “Connecting Europe Facility” and Digital Europe. Here, the Joint Undertaking for Smart Networks and Services could play a possible coordinating role to support the creation of a collaborative ecosystem for connectivity and computing.
Furthermore, the EU must harness the full potential of the digital single market for telecommunications, weighing measures to ensure a level playing field and rethinking the scope and objectives of its current regulatory framework. This reflection should take into account the technological convergence between telecommunications and the cloud (which, however, are subject to different regulatory frameworks) as well as the need to ensure that all operators investing in digital infrastructures can reach the necessary level for massive investments. To do this, a more harmonized approach to authorization procedures for telecommunications operators, more integrated governance at the EU level for spectrum, and potential changes to wholesale access policy may be necessary. The Commission could also explore measures to accelerate the phase-out of copper by 2030 and promote the greening of digital networks by improving their efficiency.
To protect Europe’s network and computing infrastructure, which is an essential element of our economic security, the EU must encourage the deployment and improve the security and resilience of strategic submarine cable infrastructures. Based on the Recommendation adopted alongside the White Paper, in the long term, a joint EU governance system could be considered, along with a review of available instruments designed to better boost private investments in support of European interest cable projects.
As an immediate action in response to calls from Member States and stakeholders, the Recommendation aims to enhance coordination within the EU, for example, by assessing and mitigating security risks, establishing a set of tools for cable security, and streamlining authorization procedures. Additionally, to support the monitoring of the Recommendation, the Commission is creating the Expert Group on Submarine Cable Infrastructures, composed of member state authorities.
Next Steps
The Commission has today launched a public consultation on the twelve hypotheses outlined in the White Paper.
The consultation will conclude on June 30, 2024. The contributions submitted will be published and will serve to design future policy actions.
Background
The EU has already adopted several measures to promote the transition from traditional connectivity networks to the infrastructures of the future:
On February 23, 2023, the Commission launched a wide exploratory consultation on the future of the connectivity sector and its infrastructures, with the results published in October 2023.
Alongside the consultation, the Commission also presented the Gigabit Infrastructure Law, for which political agreement was reached on February 5, 2024, one year after the proposal. This law introduces a set of measures to simplify and accelerate the deployment of very high-capacity networks, reducing administrative burden and deployment costs.
The agreement came at the same time as the adoption of the Recommendation on the regulatory promotion of gigabit connectivity (Gigabit Recommendation), which provides national regulatory authorities with guidance on designing wholesale access solution obligations for operators with significant market power.
Additionally, the EU has taken measures to strengthen trunk connectivity through, for example, the Global Gateway strategy partnerships, which ensure high-quality connectivity throughout the Union, including ultra-peripheral regions, islands, coastal Member States, and countries and territories overseas. The Global Gateway strategy partnerships, funded through the CEF, support key infrastructures such as submarine cables.