Jean-Claude Juncker’s plans could also involve an European Union defence fund to develop combine military assets.
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The European Commission wants to see free wi-fi provided in parks, squares, libraries and public buildings within four years.
“New online services such as music streaming, video-on-demand platforms and news aggregators have become very popular, while consumers increasingly expect to access cultural content on the move and across borders”, the European Union said.
Called WIFI4EU (Wi-Fi for EU), the project’s goal is to connect all of Europe’s remote towns to the Internet.
“It is time to move to a gigabit society and make sure all Europeans, whether in the countryside or in cities, can get access to a quality internet connection”, he said.
“Physical access is most often what enables alternative operators to compete and innovate and therefore to offer higher speeds at more affordable prices”, he said.
The former Prime Minister of Belgium, who led the European Council between 2009 and 2014, suggested that the main reason for the referendum result “lies in Britain”, and that the country “had not many friends anymore”.
Mr Juncker also promoted a copyright proposal that could give publishers more bargaining power with Google when demanding payment from the world’s most popular internet search engine for displaying snippets of their news. “There are too many areas where … national interests are brought to the fore”, said Juncker, a complaint not very different from President Obama’s preference for norm-setting worldwide institutions and rejecting American exceptionalism.
“What is important now is that the Government goes forward. and goes about the business of getting the best possible deal for the British people”.
“Above all, Europe means peace – it is no coincidence that the longest period of peace began with the formation of the European community”, he said.
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The European Commission (EC) proposals would also require platforms to deploy technology that can detect songs or videos which have been requested for removal by rights holders.
