The EU has confirmed funding of EUR 33.71 billion for the new budget period 2021-27 to invest in digital, energy and transport infrastructure. The first awards of the subsidies from the next Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme are expected to happen later this year. Just over EUR 2 billion will be dedicated to digital projects.
The CEF can move ahead following approval from the European Parliament, after the Council already gave the green light in June. This finalises the legislative procedure and allows the European Commission to adopt a work programme and start organising tenders.
The digital element of the package is worth EUR 2.07 billion and will go mainly to funding connectivity projects, such as gigabit and 5G networks across the EU. Connectivity supports access to online education, public services, digital skills and new opportunities, and it has only become more important in the past year during the pandemic, the Commission noted. Furthermore, advanced networks, particularly 5G, can contribute to unleashing innovation across sectors including medicine, manufacturing, transport, automotive and energy.
The funds will also go towards increasing security and resilience of existing networks, developing high-performance computing and cloud services, and helping digitise transport and energy networks, including delivering 5G along the main transport corridors. The funding may be further increased by national programmes and the EU's stimulus funds flowing to the member states.
