Flagship area “Connect”
Summary of the European Alliance Against Coronavirus Webinar on 28 October 2020
In order to benefit from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the main instrument for the European economic recovery, Member States should submit their draft recovery and resilience plans outlining national investment and reform agendas that are in line with the EU policy criteria. The Commission strongly encourages Member States to include in their plans investment and reforms in seven flagship areas: Power up, Renovate, Recharge and Refuel, Connect, Modernise, Scale-up, and Reskill & Upskill.
The flagship area “Connect” is defined in the Annual Growth Strategy 2021:
“Citizens and businesses in Europe should have access to rapid broadband services. Fast rollout of rapid broadband services to all regions and households, including fiber and 5G networks as well as developing quantum encryption communication, will be essential to ensure the widest possible territorial coverage in areas not served by the market while at the same time preserving the open strategic autonomy of the EU.
While urban areas and major terrestrial transport paths are expected to be covered more rapidly through private financing, the Recovery and Resilience Facility should ensure that by 2025 there is the widest possible uninterrupted 5G coverage for all areas.”
Antonio Novo, President of the European Clusters Alliance, gave an account of the connectivity issues in Spain. One of the biggest barriers for companies especially in rural areas is that suppliers prefer to give their services to citizens as it generates more income. Another question was about the possible applications of 5G. How do we work with data and can companies depend on 5G?
Cluster organisation could help companies define business cases and services related to 5G and fiber optics, develop the talent, and support in finding investment.
A recording of the session is available here.
These are the presentations shown during the meeting:
5g_and_us_a_european_story (1).pdf ipsos_5g_report_2020 (1).pdf JointDeclarationonCloud-27MSsignedpdf (1).pdfFind information and recordings of previous meetings on the Role of Clusters in Accelerating the European Recovery (since September 2020) here. For European Alliance Against Coronavirus webinar summaries of March - July 2020, please follow this link.
Finally, please find information on the upcoming agenda here.
