The European University Association (EUA) has criticised European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for “hardly featur [ing]…research, innovation and higher education” in his 2016 State of the Union Address. “Europe is not going down the path of nationalisation, it can never become that type of national area, but there splits out there and often fragmentation exists where we need further effort from the union, and that is leaving room for galloping populism”. “Our economy needs it. People need it”. But we understand what this really means: “Hungary should take on the burden created by the mistakes of others”, Szijjártó said.
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Finally, the third proposal says that all major roads and railways should have “uninterrupted 5G coverage”.
The EU has laid out its ambitions for pushing forward with mobile connectivity, including the provision of free Wi-Fi across member nations, and goals for rolling out 5G, the next step in mobile broadband. He also announced a series of initiatives including a new European travel information system, a European defence fund to be set up by the end of the year, and more resources and better access to data for Europol, which supports national law enforcement.
“Digital technologies and digital communications are permeating every aspect of life”.
The Commission explained in a background briefing that there will be a public voucher scheme with an initial budget of €120 million, to offer Wifi in and around public buildings, health centres, parks or squares.
He also proposed to double the capacity and the duration of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), launched in 2015 with the aim of generating investments of at least 315 billion euros by 2018, of which 116 billion have been already raised.
Juncker won polite applause for his speech from the members of parliament, but was savaged by MEP Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, which led the push for Brexit. “A minimum of 6,000 to 8,000 local communities should benefit from this new project by 2020”.
Europe has opened a new battlefront in its war against big US tech, announcing draft rules that could force YouTube and others to pay more money to the music industry.
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But while many publishers welcomed the Commission’s plan, Internet companies were less enthused.
