20 September 2023

The recent package of EU connectivity initiatives, notably the GIA, can give European connectivity policies the makeover that they need and usher in the quality of services that people deserve. This virtual gathering explored ways to ensure that the Regulation acheives the fundamental objective of bringing secure, high-quality internet service to homes and businesses across Europe – while reducing the time and costs of doing so.

PANELLISTS:

• Kamila Kloc, Director of Digital Decade & Connectivity in Directorate B, DG CONNECT, European Commission
• Alin Mituța MEP, Rapporteur for the Gigabit Infrastructure Act, European Parliament
•  Mieke de Regt, Counsellor for Digital Policy, Telecoms & Postal Services, Permanent Representation of Belgium to the European Union
• Emilio Davila, Digital Transformation Seconded Expert, Responsible for the GIA, Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union
• Professor Konstantinos Masselos, Chair 2023 and President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission, BEREC
• Leo-Geert van den Berg, Interim CTO – Executive Director Technology, VodafoneZiggo

  The panel was moderated by Jennifer Baker, Journalist, EURACTIV

Discover what our speakers said

“For us, what is important is to have this regulation in full force by 2025. After that it would be very difficult for it to be leveraged so that we can achieve the Digital Decade targets by 2030. On tacit approvals, this is an essential element of the proposal. We really believe that simplification of the procedures is absolutely necessary. For the Regulation to work, we must have short deadlines and only extend the deadlines in specific cases.”

“We speak very much about AI, data economy and digital economy, but none of this is possible without having the necessary infrastructure. The Gigabit Infrastructure Act is really the centrepiece of the digital economy that we are trying to build in the European Union and the economy of tomorrow.”

“The digital economy is one of the pillars of our Presidency of the Council. In this challenging world that we have now, we believe that digital transformation technologies are really key to the European Union having a leadership position in the global context.”

“Taking into account the different technologies and different underlying physical infrastructure in the Member States, it is key to maintain flexibility at national level to promote the deployment of high-speed broadband. There is no one size fits all solution.”

“We need policy and regulatory action to address investment challenges and to optimise costs, speed up network deployments, and to also address the demand side. We need networks to be available to European citizens and financially viable in the long term. As part of this, similar technologies that can achieve the same quality of service (for example, Gigabit speeds), should be considered .”

“The European telecoms industry is continuously investing in the capacity and quality of their networks in order to make them future-ready. As a matter of fact, in the Netherlands we have been able to already meet one of the most difficult Digital Decade 2030 goals of reaching nationwide Gigabit coverage. We have this in place since December 2022 – and we are very proud of that!”