The Commission has published the results of a study analysing the economic impact of Open Source Software and Hardware on the European economy. It is estimated that companies located in the EU invested around €1 billion in Open Source Software in 2018, which brought about a positive impact on the European economy of between €65…
Digital Market
Commission Grants €24.9 billion to Italy under NextGenerationEU
The European Commission has disbursed €24.9 billion to Italy in pre-financing, equivalent to 13% of the country’s grant and loan allocation for the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) under NextGenerationEU. Italy is one of the first countries receiving a pre-financing payment under the RRF. The pre-financing will help to kick-start the implementation of the crucial…
Commission Approves €2.7 billion funds for React-EU
The Commission has approved the modification of six Operational Programmes (OP) for the ERDF and the ESF in Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary and Germany under REACT-EU for a total of €2.7 billion. In Italy, €1 billion has been added to the ERDF-ESF National Operational Programme for Metropolitan Cities. These resources aim to strengthen the green and digital transition as well…
Working in Space to Make Life Better on Earth
On Monday 16 August a Vega launcher operated by Arianespace will lift off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, with the optical observation satellite Pléiades Neo 4. It will also deploy four scientific spacecraft: three to the benefit of the European Space Agency (ESA) and one for the French start-up company Unseenlabs. Pléiades Neo 4…
Successful Ariane 5 launch places 2 Telecoms Satellites in Orbit
Late on Friday night, the first Ariane 5 flight of 2021 operated by Arianespace successfully placed two satellites in orbit after launching from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou with the support of teams from the French space agency CNES: Star One D2, built by Maxar Technologies for Brazilian operator Embratel, and EUTELSAT QUANTUM for…
China’s Malicious Cyber Activities Heavily Criticised by EU
EU foreign affairs Josep Borrell has urged China to do more to combat malicious cyber activities originating from the country. The Spaniard said, “Today, the EU and its Member States, together with partners, expose malicious cyber activities that significantly affected our economy, security, democracy and society at large.” He added, “The EU and its Member…
North Atlantic Council condemns malicious cyber activities
We observe with increasing concern that cyber threats to the security of the Alliance are complex, destructive, coercive, and becoming ever more frequent. This has been recently illustrated by ransomware incidents and other malicious cyber activity, targeting our critical infrastructure and democratic institutions, as well as exploiting weaknesses in hardware and software supply chains. We…
Data Governance Act
The report on European Data Governance (also known as the Data Governance Act) has been adopted by the European parliament’s committee on industry, research and energy. The Socialists and Democrats included their key objectives in the document. These include a push towards fair European data spaces that enable the use of data for players of…
Cloud Platform Improves Road Safety
A new mobility cloud platform to improve the safety of road users is being tested for the first time on the open road in the UK. Drawing on the power of mobile and data technologies, the platform is a new type of information superhighway which will ultimately connect vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and infrastructure in a…
Health Crisis Presents New Opportunities
The pandemic has dealt a “catastrophic blow” to Europe’s culture industry. But, despite gloomy outlook, Valeria Brusnikina (pictured) said that music and art was an international success story and can boom again, writes Martin Banks. In an interview with this website, Brusnikina, who represents an association which, among other things, champions the rights to royalties of musicians and…