Jennifer Baker

The European Commission has promised free Wi-Fi in every town, village, and city in the European Union, in the next four years. A new grant, with a total budget of €120 million, will allow public authorities to purchase state-of-the art equipment, for example a local wireless access point. If approved by the the European Parliament and national ministers the cash could be available before the end of 2017. The commission has also set a target for all European households to have access to download speeds of at least 100Mbps by 2025, and has redefined Internet access as a so-called universal service, while removing obligations for old universal services such as payphones. It also envisions fully deploying 5G, the fifth generation of mobile communication systems, across the European Union by 2025.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker made reference to many of these proposals while also promising to abolish roaming once and for all in his "State of the European Union" address on Sept 14. To do all this the commission has proposed a new law—the European Electronic Communications Code—which merges four existing telecoms Directives (Framework, Authorisation, Access, and Universal Service Directive); as well as an updated Regulation on the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC); a Regulation to support local communities in providing free public Wi-Fi to their citizens; and an Action Plan to deploy 5G in the EU.

Civil liberties Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) approved plans to create a law that will block terrorist content online. The counter terrorism directive also deals with terrorism training and financing as well as “Internet propaganda, and the misuse of the Internet for terrorist purposes." It was passed by 41 votes to four, with 10 abstentions meaning that the parliament’s chief negotiator, German MEP Monika Hohlmeier, can now start talks with the European ministers for justice and home affairs on a final text.

The initial draft proposal contained no reference to online activity, but Hohlmeier introduced two new sections taken in part from the EU law against child sex abuse. Under the latest wording, national authorities must take measures to ensure the prompt removal of illegal content hosted from within their territory that constitutes public incitement to commit a terrorist offence. If this is not feasible, they may take the necessary measures to block access to such content “while adhering to transparent procedure, adequate safeguards, and subject to judicial review.” “It’s easy to ban something on the Internet, but of course you can’t ban everything, and if people use terrorist-related Internet facilities, then they will be correspondingly dealt with," said Hohlmeier.