Written by Jean-Matthias Bohli, Senior Researcher at NEC Laboratories Europe By 2030, 5 billion people — around 60% of the world’s population — will live in cities, compared with 3.6 billion today, turbocharging the world’s economic growth. City leaders in developing nations must cope with urbanisation on an unprecedented scale, while those in developed ones wrestle […]NEC @ MWC14: “Smart cities” hold the key to enhancing citizens’ lives and cutting costs
March 8, 2014 by 1 Comment
Written by Jean-Matthias Bohli, Senior Researcher at NEC Laboratories Europe By 2030, 5 billion people — around 60% of the world’s population — will live in cities, compared with 3.6 billion today, turbocharging the world’s economic growth. City leaders in developing nations must cope with urbanisation on an unprecedented scale, while those in developed ones wrestle […]Intel @ MWC14: Our Love Story with Mobile – Transforming Wireless Networks
March 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Written by Bernadette Andrietti, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group, Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa Marketing, Intel Corporation Bursting with product launches, new technologies and insights from the biggest names in mobile, the recent Mobile World Congress was as exhilarating as ever. Each year the show is a heady reminder of just how fast developments […]How ‘small’ is Europe in Big Data?
February 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
One of the major current debates in ICT is the one of open big data. Last December, Neelie Kroes, the Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, made a speech in the European Data Protection Congress in Brussels for the importance of data in the modern world and the numerous opportunities that arise […]No better year for the EU’s weak chain links
January 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament issued a Press release this week with the ambitious target to inform us all about what is bound to change in our lives this year, resulting from the application of EU laws. It mentions the mercury ban in thermometers and some new rules in recycling of electrical and electronic equipment, the legislation […]Advocate General ‘outlaws’ Data Retention Directive
December 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The shallowness that the European Commission shows, while asked to protect the basic civil rights of EU citizens and companies, was ostentatiously proven in the case of the Data Retention Directive. According to the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Cruz Villalón, the Directive doesn’t provide the basic guarantees that […]Microsoft’s YouthSpark: a kiss of Life to European Youth from the European Parliament
December 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Two weeks ago, on 14 November, the European Sting attended the event at the European Parliament, organized by the European Youth Forum and YouthIntergroup, titled “Internships: a Call for Quality”. Here we present the third piece of our Special Edition “European Youth & Employment”. This piece reflects the Industry’s perspective, and particularly the ICT sector’s […]Galileo funding: A ‘small’ difference of €700 million
November 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A ‘small’ difference of €700 million appears in the funding of the European GPS Galileo-EGNOS programme for the 2014-2020 period. After the funding of the project got the green light in the plenary of the European Parliament, the legislators issued a Press release with a reference to its cost saying, “the programme’s €6.3 billion budget […]Parliament asks for the termination of EU-US bank data deal
October 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Parliament finally voted in favour of the suspension of EU-US bank data deal, in response to NSA snooping. “The EU should suspend its Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement with the US in response to the US National Security Agency‘s alleged tapping of EU citizens’ bank data held by the Belgian company SWIFT”, […]While EU Open Days 2013 discuss the 2020 strategy, Microsoft shares a glimpse of EU 2060
October 15, 2013 by 1 Comment
As we move towards the middle of October, the most important annual events in Brussels start taking place one after the other. Last week it was the turn of the 11th European Week of Regions and Cities under the annual open dialogue forum series called Open Days 2013. The event offered the opportunity to EU […]Snowden is the “EU nomination” for this year’s Oscars
September 30, 2013 by 4 Comments
After last June’s revelations about the PRISM scandal you can actually feel it that the air in world politics has less oxygen. The leaders of the major world powers, EU, USA and Russia faced severe respiratory issues during this period. Obama is still suffering from severe panic attacks, Putin broke the window to get some […]GSMA Mobile 360: Connecting Cities, Connecting Lives, Connecting Europe
September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Traditionally the first week of September in Brussels is the time when you see grumpy faces walking around the European Quarter thinking that the time they were lying on a beach is over for good. Most EU stakeholders did not miss their flight back and neither did the powerful network of influencers. One of this […]Commission caps charges on card and Internet payments and enforces competition
July 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It was high time that the European Commission tried to arrest the over-exploitation of European consumers by a handful of banks and credit card providers. This week Joaquín Almunia, Commission’s Vice President responsible for competition policy, and Michel Barnier, EU Commissioner in charge of internal market and services presented one draft regulation and one directive amendment, […]The US bugged Europe: Is this news?
July 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It took a new wave of publications by major European media (Der Spiegel, Guardian) about the bugging of EU’s and EU member states’ offices in the US by the American secret services, to wake up the European Union leaders. Yesterday all three European Union presidents and at least two Commission vice presidents issued statements asking […]Is Data Privacy really safe seen through Commissioner’s PRISM?
June 19, 2013 by 1 Comment
It was last Friday that the European Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, had a ministerial meeting in Dublin with Mr Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General. The topic of the meeting would have normally been the ongoing discussion on the transatlantic data privacy agreement. That would have been effectively the 15th round of negotiations to bridge […]EU Council: Private web data to be protected by…abusers
June 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Protection of citizens and businesses web data is still a pending issue in the European Union and internet companies may, probably legally, sell to marketers names, telephone numbers, mail addresses and consumer profiles including personal details. The existing privacy laws are twenty years old and far from effectively protecting our data from being sold and […]The European Internet is not neutral and neither is the Commissioner
April 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
How many times were you out with friends and wanted to show them a new cool video on Youtube through your smart phone but buffering was unbelievably slow? What about the time you had a cheap pay-as-you-go subscription and you wanted to save money using Viber to call your friends for free instead of giving […]Galileo and EGNOS programmes back in orbit powered with €70 billion
April 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Irish Presidency of the European Council secured a major breakthrough agreement on the development of Europe’s global satellite navigation system. According to a relevant Press release, “The Irish Presidency has secured agreement with the European Parliament on an EU Regulation on the implementation and exploitation of European satellite navigation systems. The purpose of the […]Amazon, a pair of shoes and my Data Privacy walks away
April 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Try to remember the last time you shopped from Amazon. Most likely you are another happy consumer that has enjoyed the benefits of e-shopping in terms of service, price and delivery time. It is also highly possible that you already master the plethora of reasons not to get into your car and experience all that […]E-Government can be a remedy for the crisis
March 24, 2013 by 2 Comments
Since the dawn of the 21st century it has been clear that Information Communication Technology (ICT) would be a significant driver of modern society. Let’s not go far. Think about your first cell phones at the beginning of the millennium that were as big as a ping-pong racket, indeed very inconvenient, while mobile communication was […]High-technology manufacturing saves the EU industry
March 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
According to a study by Eurostat, the EU statistical service, high and medium technology industries saved the manufacturing sector from a much larger fall during the difficult crisis years from 2008 until 2010. Still, the industrial sector has not yet fully recovered and in January 2013 compared to December 2012, seasonally adjusted overall industrial production fell […]Commission imposes a fine of €561 million on Microsoft
March 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Late in the afternoon of today 6 February, the Commission issued an announcement, signed by Joaquín Almunia, Vice President responsible for Competition Policy, saying that the Commission imposes on Microsoft a fine of €561 million. According to this Press release, the decision came as result of Microsoft’s failure to comply with the legally binding commitments […]The European Commission to stop Buffering
February 26, 2013 by 1 Comment
At last some good news for the European online gamers and Skype users. The European Commission has decided to fund a big research on how to fight internet lagging and make European Internet move faster without the need to have expensive changes in the network infrastructure. Following the steps of the increasing American research on […]EU plans pan-European network of cybersecurity services
February 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The European Union proposes the creation of a pan-European network of digital security services. Last week, Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Cecilia Malmström, Member of the EC in charge of Home Affairs, made jointly the relevant announcement. They unveiled a plan for […]It ain’t over until Google says it’s over
February 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The deadline EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia set to Google to answer the Commission’s investigation expired yesterday and, since no answer had been filled, people in the DG Competition decided to throw a party. They thought that these would be the easiest €4 billion the European Commission had ever made. Mr. Almunia even rushed to brag […]The big five EU telecom operators in dire straights
January 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Telecom Italia and Telefónica constitute the exclusive club of major telecom operators in the European Union. The very oligopolistic character of the market has prompted the European Commission some years ago to forcefully introduce ground breaking changes in the EU telecom market. Towards the end of 2009 the Commission […]Chinese “BeiDou” GPS goes to market
January 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Towards the end of last year Beijing announced the opening of its Geostatic Positioning System for civic and commercial users in the region of Asia and Pacific, adding that the China Satellite Navigation Office is working fast to extend the area covered by this satellite umbrella named “BeiDou”. A GPS system “provides location and time information […]Telecommunications and Internet: A Jungle with no principles?
December 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Since the last World Conference on International Telecommunications in 1988 our planet has become a completely different place. It is not any more the bi-polar globe we knew until the fall of the USSR, which ended the division between communism and capitalism. Today there is only capitalism and more…capitalism. During the 1990s and the 2000s […]Let your fingers do the walking
December 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It was high time. The European Commission has prepared a proposal to make mandatory for all member states the creation of easily accessible government web sites to facilitate the lives of their citizens. According to the Commission’s announcement key beneficiaries of this proposal would be Europe’s 80 million citizens with disabilities and the 87 million […]eGovernmnet for more efficiency, equality and democracy
November 20, 2012 by 1 Comment
At the fifth Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Malmö, (Sweden) the 27 EU ministers, responsible for administrative affairs, outlined a joint vision and policy priorities on how to developing smarter online public services for citizens and businesses by 2015. The EU Commission hailed this agreement and commented that eGovernment is a key step towards boosting Europe’s […]
