In keeping with the digital agenda goals set in the EU 2020, the European Commission approved the use of over EUR 1.8 billion of public funds for broadband development in 2010. The public funds are aimed to ensure that all citizens have access to high speed internet access in the European Union, including in rural or remote areas. In 2010, the EC adopted 20 decisions covering aid for broadband development in Catalonia, Finland and Bavaria and others, approving a record amount of state aid for broadband project. This will generate up to EUR 3.5 billion of investments in the sector. The national public support was in line with the September 2009 Broadband Guidelines, which set out in detail the Commission's approach to state aid in this field. These targets can only be reached if EU and public funds complement private investments to extend current generation broadband and very high speed broadband coverage to areas where market operators are unlikely to invest on commercial terms in the near future. Besides national funding, for the 2007-2013 financing period of the EU Structural Funds, a total of EUR 2.3 billion was allocated to broadband infrastructure investments and EUR 12.9 billion to information society services, and a further EUR 360 million through the Fund for Rural Development was used for broadband funding. The EIB invested in 2009 EUR 2.3 billion in broadband infrastructures.
