CEF Implementation Brochure for Telecoms (June 2022) - PDF

42 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu ec.europa.eu/cinea CEF Telecom...

42 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu ec.europa.eu/cinea CEF Telecom CEF Telecom has two pillars: Digital (deploying CEF Telecom is anchored to the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, DSIs) and Connectivity sustainable and inclusive growth via the Digital Single Market (DSM) (Broadband and WiFi4EU)*. strategy. The DSM strategy highlights the importance of digital infrastructure and a digital economy for improving services, expanding * See page 52 choice and creating employment. CEF Telecom invests in digitalisation and connectivity. In terms of digitalisation, the Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) promote cross border interoperability of an ecosystem of trans- European solutions for citizens, businesses and governments. In terms of connectivity, CEF stimulates investment for deploying and modernising broadband networks (CEF Broadband), and provides high-quality local CEF BROADBAND wireless connectivity in local communities (WiFi4EU). These are all essential elements for sustaining a Digital Single Market The Connecting Europe Broadband Fund and supporting the competitiveness of the European economy. They also (CEBF) is providing equity and quasi- support the Commission’s broadband targets, as well as the more recent equity funding to smaller-scale, higher- strategic objectives to be reached by 2025 under the European Gigabit risk broadband Actions facing difficulties Society strategy. accessing financing from the banking CEF Telecom Actions are making the EU’s Single Market fit for the digital sector. It is managed by Cube Infrastructure age by investing in trans-European connectivity and interoperable digital Managers* on behalf of the European services. These Actions facilitate cross-border interactions between public Commission and the European Investment administrations, businesses and citizens, by deploying DSIs in a wide Bank. The CEBF target size of EUR 500–600 range of areas such as Public Open Data and e-Justice. Support is also million has already been accomplished and it available for the deployment and modernisation of the telecommunication is estimated to unlock investments of up to networks underlying the delivery of the above mentioned digital services. EUR 1.7 billion. The CEF Programme is also Digital services infrastructure and connectivity have received a strong participating in a debt financial instrument boost for the next programming period and will be supported by means managed by the EIB for broadband of two separate programmes with reinforced budgets. To further build the infrastructure Actions. So far, the Fund strategic digital capacities of the EU and to facilitate the wide deployment has signed 8 projects with total expected of digital technologies the Digital Europe Programme has been created, commitments of EUR 219 million. whilst the second generation of the Connecting Europe Facility will focus on the improvement of digital connectivity infrastructures of common European interest. * https://www.cubeinfrastructure.com/  43 The Connecting Europe Facility Funding per country (DSIs and WiFi4EU) EU Member States FUNDING (€ million) AT 16.8 IE 16.7 BE 19.6 IT 55.5 BG 8.8 LT 6.7 CY 9.6 LU 6.2 CZ 10.8 LV 9.5 DE 34.2 MT 5.5 DK 6.7 NL 22.1 EE 8.7 PL 13.9 EL 17.3 PT 16.5 ES 56 RO 17.1 FI 11.3 SE 8.1 FR 30.3 SI 10.1 HR 19 SK 10 HU 12.5 Other countries FUNDING (€ million) CH 0.03 RS 0.05 IS 3 UK 14.9 NO 8.3 €0 €56 million The table and the map show grant funding per beneficiary country.  44 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu Digital Service Infrastructures (DSIs) CEF Digital Service infrastructures (DSIs) play a key role in supporting Member States to comply with EU Regulations and Directives and facilitate coordination among Member States to share data, develop standards and enable the interoperability of an ecosystem of digital solutions they have developed at national level. This has resulted in faster and more efficient online public and cross-border services for the benefit of citizens, businesses and public administrations across Europe. CEF DIGITAL SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURES ARE OF TWO DIFFERENT TYPES: building blocks and sector-specific DSIs. The nine building blocks provide basic functionality, The thirteen sector-specific DSIs provide more complex facilitate cross-border interaction between EU public trans-European online services for citizens, businesses administrations, businesses and citizens and are reusable and public administrations: by more complex services. eIdentification Safer Internet eSignature Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) eInvoicing Public Open Data eDelivery eHealth eTranslation eProcurement eArchiving Business Registers Interconnection System (BRIS) Blockchain Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information (EESSI) Context Broker* European e-Justice Portal Big Data Test Infrastructure* Europeana Cybersecurity EU Student eCard *Context Broker and Big Data Test Infrastructure are European Platform for Digital Skills and Jobs embedded in the Public Open Data DSI European Digital Media Observatory 45 The Connecting Europe Facility Digital pillar All DSIs have a double layer structure: ‘Core Service Platforms’ (CSPs) – that work as central hubs which enable trans-European interoperability – and ‘Generic Services’ (GS) which link the national services to the Core Service Platforms. Funding opportunities in the area of DSIs are offered mostly via calls for tenders (procurement) for the development, evolutive maintenance and operation of the Core Service Platforms and via calls for proposals (grants) for the connection of the national service infrastructures developed in the Member States to the trans-European Core Service Platform. EUR 393 million of the CEF Telecom total budget of EUR 1.05 billion was reserved for the deployment of generic services. Between 2014 and 2020, 73 calls for proposals were organised under CEF Telecom (DSIs), allocating EUR 363.1 million - or 74% of the overall grant budget for DSIs - to 735 Actions. The total investment leveraged through these calls is EUR 526 million which have benefitted all EU Member States - plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Serbia and the UK.  46 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu DSI building blocks CEF Actions in the Digital pillar aim to be mutually reinforcing and complementary. There are many potential links between the digital services – in particular the building blocks that are reused in more complex DSIs. This possibility not only contributes to creating economies of scale but also speeds up implementation of more complex Actions. Aside from the development of the respective Core Service Platforms with a dedicated budget of more than EUR 90 million, the Commission supports their deployment through dedicated calls for proposals. In 2014-2020, 26 dedicated calls were launched for these building blocks, allocating EUR 87.5 million in CEF Telecom funding to 196 Actions. CEF GRANT FUNDING PER DSI BUILDING BLOCK € million (number of Actions) eInvoicing Helping public entities adopt the European €28.8 (49) standard on electronic invoicing eID Extending the use of online services to & eSignature Creating €25.3 citizens of other EU Member States through and verifying electronic (72) mutual recognition of national electronic signatures identification eTranslation Exchanging information across language €24.7 barriers in the EU Member States (29) eDelivery Supporting electronic registered delivery of €5.2 data and documents (23) Blockchain Enhancing EU-wide cross-border services €2.8 (19) by using blockchain technology eArchiving Facilitating the storage and €0.8 preservation of digital information in a sustainable (4) and interoperable manner  47 The Connecting Europe Facility Sector-specific DSIs The sector-specific DSIs provide solutions that allow citizens, businesses and administrations to access online services across Europe, enabling interoperability in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, health, justice or social security rights. During 2014-2020, 47 calls were launched for their generic services, funding 539 Actions with EUR 275.6 million in 12 sector-specific DSIs. Most of these DSIs will reuse basic functionalities provided by the building blocks. At the same time, for the sector specific DSI Core Service Platforms, a total of more than EUR 170 million has been invested. €59.6 CEF GRANT FUNDING PER SECTOR SPECIFIC DSI (114) € million (number of Actions) €47.9 (40) €45 (100) €34.7 (35) €28.8 (117) €16.3 (24) €13.3 (34) €11.2 (8) €8.9 (26) €7.5 (22) €2.4 €0.03 (16) (3) et en a nt ita l for ern Op ber SI eal th pea n me Dig tory rm obs n BR IS OD R Int blic Data Cy rity EES eH uro ure n ea erva f o lat nd J ea rop ortal fer Pu Se cu E oc o p P E u Sa ePr r Eu a Ob s n ea ills a P di rop Sk tice Me Eu ital e - Jus Dig 48 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu European e-Justice Portal The European e-Justice Portal was conceived as an electronic one-stop-shop in the area of justice. The Portal’s objective is to contribute to the creation of a European judicial area by leveraging ICT to facilitate access to justice and enable electronic cross-border Adobe Stock | # 248486912 judicial proceedings and judicial cooperation. The Actions funded under the 2016-2019 CEF Telecom e-Justice calls aimed to encourage interconnectivity (development, deployment, testing and operation) of generic services in EU Member States to allow the modules of the Portal ACTION EXAMPLE to serve a greater audience and thus better fulfil their public function. These modules include: Interconnection INTEGRATION OF ELECTRONIC MULTILINGUAL STANDARD FORM FOR ABSENCE OF A CRIMINAL RECORD INTO of national Insolvency Registers, Find a lawyer / Find a NATIONAL LITHUANIAN SYSTEMS notary, the European Case Law Identifier (ECLI), access to e-CODEX, the European Court Database, e-Evidence The Action successfully updated the Lithuanian National systems and the Integration of multilingual standard forms. (e-Services Portal; Subsystem of preparation and issuing of certificates and extracts; Document management system) and CEF Telecom funding EUR 7.49 million integrated the electronic multilingual standard forms into them. Its main objective was to simplify the processes of ordering, Number of Actions supported 22 preparing and issuing certificates and forms confirming the Relevant links CEF Telecom, e-Justice Portal absence of a criminal record to the individuals who lodge the application. As a result of this Action, new e-services of value for the citizens were developed, ordering process was digitalised, user-friendly IT tools were created and consular posts enabling electronic ordering of multilingual standard form in all EU official languages, and overall administrative burden was reduced. The concrete outcome of this Action is that 208 multilingual standard forms for absence of a criminal record were issued in 2020, which was followed by 188 in 2021. CEF Telecom funding EUR 0.12 million Countries involved Lithuania  49 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu Europeana Europeana is Europe’s digital platform for cultural heritage. The platform currently provides access to over 53 million cultural heritage items, (including image, text, sound, video and 3D material) from the collections of over 3,700 libraries, archives, museums, galleries and audio-visual collections across Europe. © Shutterstock The Actions funded under the 2016 Europeana Call had the goal of showcasing cultural treasures in Europe, telling and illustrating gripping European stories on the Europeana platform in the form of channels and taking visitors on a curated journey through ACTION EXAMPLE Europe’s rich and diverse cultural heritage. Whilst the 2016 Call was more concerned with the “supply side” of information and EUROPEANA COMMON CULTURE enabling a better quality of content, the 2017 call focused on The Europeana Common Culture Action developed a harmonised user experience and re-use of the material, specifically with two and coordinated environment for national aggregators (NAs) by goals: streamlining the aggregation processes, introducing innovative a. to provide tools for end users to highlight, share or enrich applications and developing policy recommendations for a common material accessible through Europeana, and aggregation strategy. Moreover, it improved the quality of the b. to produce concrete examples of re-use of the material content and metadata. The Action contributed to the aggregation accessible through Europeana in other sectors, such as in and display of over nine million records on the Core Service Platform. research, education, creative industries or tourism. The availability of high quality and rich cultural heritage material for digital reuse was particularly pertinent during the Covid-19 The 2018 call primarily aimed at supporting cultural institutions pandemic: it helped to improve the well-being of European citizens and others to increase the amount of content and metadata and businesses in unlocking the creative and economic potential of accessible through Europeana that is of high quality and cultural heritage. suitable for reuse, as well as to increase awareness and usage of Europeana. The 2019 call focused on encouraging cultural Concrete use cases were assessed and demonstrated innovation institutions to develop new ways to make such content accessible in aggregation. Semantic enrichment improved discoverability and through the creation of curated collections, exhibitions or any indexing of Europeana. Lastly, the Action carried out events, training other personalised ways of engaging users. Similarly, the 2020 seminars, online presence, and publications in order to increase call continued to support the cultural heritage institutions to awareness of Europeana. open up their collection and provide high-quality engaging digital The results of the Action have benefitted the whole value chain of content to Europeana with the use of innovative approaches and digital cultural heritage. tools, and support them to make the best use of Europeana in fulfilling their public activities and missions. CEF Telecom funding EUR 1.95 million CEF Telecom funding EUR 16.28 million Countries involved Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Number of Actions supported 24 Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Relevant links CEF Telecom, EUROPEANA Sweden 50 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu Public Open Data Every day, public institutions across Europe publish data in categories as broad as health, traffic, public spending and agriculture, which have large economic potential. Open Data encourages the reuse and analysis of existing data to create new products and services. Adobe Stock | # 283775347 The Public Open Data DSI makes it easier for public services and businesses to access and reuse public data through the online EU Open Data Portal. The portal collects metadata (data about the data) published by public bodies across Europe, collating it into a searchable ACTION EXAMPLE tool accessible by anyone. HALE & HEARTY: IMPROVING THE HEALTH & WELLBEING OF PEOPLE LIVING IN IRELAND There are currently over 1.3 million data sets published on the EU Open Data Portal, freely accessible by citizens The Hale & Hearty Action has been developing a comprehensive and businesses. Health & Wellbeing knowledge base that can be used for rich analysis, insights and action. It does this by collecting and CEF Telecom funding EUR 47.9 million harmonising data from a number of different sources, including Local Authorities, Central Statistics Offices, and Healthcare Number of Actions supported 40 Providers and then making it available through Application Relevant links Public Open Data Programme Interfaces (APIs), as well as via user-friendly interfaces, dashboards and maps. Whilst an app is still in development, the Knowledge Base and Data Catalogue have already been made live and offer several options for how to locate health and wellbeing facilities and amenities in chosen areas around Ireland. CEF Telecom funding EUR 0.72 million Countries involved Ireland  51 The Connecting Europe Facility European Social Media ACTION EXAMPLE Observatory (EDMO) Hubs NORDIC OBSERVATORY FOR DIGITAL MEDIA AND There are currently eight existing national or INFORMATION DISORDERS (EDMO) multinational hubs covering Ireland, Belgium, Czechia, The Nordic Observatory for Digital Media and Information Disorder Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxemburg, the (NORDIS) established a strong independent Nordic regional hub with Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, 8 partners – national fact-checkers organisations and four universities as well as Norway, in the EEA. in each of the four biggest Nordic countries: Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. The aim of the Action is to strengthen the national and Each national and multinational hub constitutes a regional infrastructure through a cross-country, cross-disciplinary and network of organisations active in one or several cross-sectoral knowledge-based hub. The Action contributes to EDMO Member States, to provide specific knowledge of local platform and aims to develop theories, practices and models that information environments so as to strengthen the can help counteract digital information disorders – the spreading of detection and analysis of disinformation campaigns, misinformation, disinformation and other forms of harmful information improve public awareness, and design effective online – and to help empower citizens in the Nordic welfare states to responses for national audiences. resist such information by enhancing their media literacy. By focusing on emerging digital media vulnerabilities and The new methodological and technological infrastructure solutions, disinformation campaigns relevant to a specific territory knowledge and networks created through NORDIS are freely available and/or linguistic area, each hub represents a crucial for implementation at the national and at European level via EDMO. source of knowledge on local information environments. Hence, NORDIS’ work aims to contribute to the public service in each Together with EDMO Core Service Platform, the Nordic country, the Nordic region as a whole and the European Union. hubs form a European multidisciplinary community By bringing together the four largest Nordic countries, NORDIS gathering academic researchers, fact-checkers, media consolidates a strong research-based Nordic fact-checking network practitioners, and other relevant actors in order to that aims to be resilient to outside attacks. It allows for academic actively detect, analyse and expose disinformation cross-country analysis of mis- and disinformation that resonates at campaigns across Europe. Hubs also organise media international level due to the special status of the Nordic Welfare literacy activities at national or multinational level State and the associated ideals. and provide support to national authorities for the monitoring of online platforms’ policies and the digital In December 2021, NORDIS received the Chydenius Medal for media ecosystem. Transparency as it was deemed an exemplary civil society initiative to modernise the Nordic information society. CEF Telecom funding EUR 11.16 million Number of Actions supported 8 CEF Telecom funding EUR 1.5 million Relevant links EDMO Countries involved Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark CEF  53 The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu CEF Telecom | WiFi4EU - Free Wi-Fi for Europeans The WiFi4EU initiative provides free high-quality internet access across the EU via Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces such as parks, public squares, administrations, public libraries, hospitals, etc. Vouchers worth EUR 15,000 were awarded to support municipalities in the installation of WiFi4EU hotspots, using the services of local Wi-Fi installation companies. With millions of connections every month, the WiFi4EU initiative offers citizens and visitors a direct access to local services, contributing to pave the way towards Europe’s Digital Decade.  54 The Connecting Europe Facility CEF Telecom | WiFi4EU - Free Wi-Fi for Europeans The WiFi4EU initiative was open to municipalities, The four WiFi4EU calls for proposals proved to be very or associations formed by municipalities. They popular, with demand far exceeding the available could apply via the WiFi4EU portal (WiFi4EU.eu) vouchers. Over 3,500 municipalities applied within which provides simple procedures at all steps, from the first 5 seconds of the first call in autumn 2018, online applications to allocation of vouchers, and while all four calls attracted more than 10,000 monitoring requirements, in 24 official EU languages. applicants on average. The vouchers were assigned on a “first-come, first- served” basis while ensuring a fair geographical In total, 8,802 municipalities (which is 10% of all balance between participating countries. municipalities in Europe) across 30 participating countries received a voucher worth EUR 15,000 to By 2022, over 29,000 municipalities had registered in set up free Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces, for a total the WiFi4EU portal, which is 30% of all municipalities budget of EUR 132 million. So far, more than 7,800 in Europe. As soon as a call opened, registered WiFi4EU networks and over 79,000 hotspots have municipalities could apply with just “one click” in the been installed, attracting more than 117,000 daily portal. users. https://wifi4eu.ec.europa.eu/#/home https://hadea.ec.europa.eu/programmes/connecting-europe-facility- digital/wifi4eu_en https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/wifi4eu 55 European The Connecting Europe Facility hadea.ec.europa.eu WiFi4EU Health and Digital Executive Agency Participating municipalities (29 March 2022) WiFi4EU networks Guadeloupe (FR) ( ! ! ( ( ! ( ! ( ! French Guiana (FR) ( ! ! ! ( ( ( ! ( ! ( ! ! ( (! !( ( ! 0 25 50 ! (! ( 0 150 300 ( ! km km ( ! ( ! Martinique (FR) Mayotte (FR) ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! 0 25 50 0 25 50 km km ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ! ( ( ! ( ! ( ! New Caledonia (FR) La Réunion (FR) ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ! ( ! ( ! ( ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( ! ( !