When back in April the European Commission formally filed a complaint against Google it was clear that the action could have turned the page of the whole “EU vs Google” case. But after the tech giant responded and set out the initial arguments against the Commission’s findings, almost immediately, no further discussion about the thorny […]Google’s bare truth: Europe’s Chief denies EU accusations but admits they “don’t always get it right”
June 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
When back in April the European Commission formally filed a complaint against Google it was clear that the action could have turned the page of the whole “EU vs Google” case. But after the tech giant responded and set out the initial arguments against the Commission’s findings, almost immediately, no further discussion about the thorny […]“The winner is who can accelerate the transition to a new digital era”. The Sting reports live from EBS 2015: a Digital Europe 4.0
May 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Digital Economy touches every aspect of our society, from the job market and the economy to our social life. The world is changing and who wants to be competitive must adapt quickly. This was the message reinforced at the EBS 2015 Session on Europe and the digital era last week, which was moderated by Bruno […]It’s EU vs. Google for real: the time is now, the case is open
April 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
As anticipated by the European Sting in a latest Sting of the day last week on Google’s antitrust case in Europe, the European Commission did take finally formal actions and filed a complaint against the Northern American tech giant, alleging the company’s search results unfairly favoured its own shopping services over third-party sites. The antitrust charge followed a five-year […]EU seeks foreign support on 5G from Mobile World Congress 2015 as the “digital gold rush” begins
March 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment
“The digital economy is simply becoming the economy. And the future network infrastructure, 5G, will become the infrastructure”. These words came from Günther Oettinger, the European Union Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, and they were spelled in Barcelona, during Mobile World Congress, 2015 last week. Those words stood for Mr. Oettinger’s introduction for the […]Mobile World Congress 2015 first to debate EU’s new stance on Net Neutrality and Roaming Charges
March 7, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Did you really think that Christmas 2015 would be the perfect chance to travel abroad in Europe, do your shopping in London or Paris and call your folks back home for wishes at zero roaming cost? More so, did you really think that Christmas 2015 would be the perfect chance for you to Skype with your pal without […]New VAT rules in the EU: how a digital sea could have become an ocean
January 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
From 1 January 2015, a major change to the European Union VAT rules occurred affecting the digital world, which is destined to be discussed widely for a long time. A new regulation has come into place where VAT on digital products sold in the EU will be chargeable in the place of purchase rather than […]Parlamentarians to “break up” with reality in the Google antitrust case
November 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
How many years can an antitrust case endure in the EU? It certainly depends on many factors but in the case of Google 4 is the minimum. This is because the topic of a ‘digital monopoly’ of a search engine is so refined and sophisticated that for the majority of EU stakeholders it is “terra incognita”. Also […]It’s Time to Disrupt Europe, Digital First
October 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Written by Kumardev Chatterjee, Founder & President of European Young Innovators Forum Over the last 30 years, the European Union has failed in innovation capacity and the main reason is its mindset: in on the one hand, societally, europeans have grown increasingly risk-averse in the last 30 years while on the other, structurally, it has […]Digital business is Europe’s best hope to get back to growth
October 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Digital market has received a lot of interest lately in Europe. Not only by the market players that have always lobbied more favourable or less regulation in general, but most importantly by the EU leadership. New Commissioner, new priorities Jean Claude Juncker, new President of the European Commission, seems to have ‘bet all his money’ […]Facebook wins EU approval for WhatsApp acquisition; just a sign of the times
October 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
After a few months of sleepless nights, Facebook founder and young billionaire Mark Zuckerberg can finally relax a bit. The world’s largest social network will likely receive approval by the European Union for its $19 billion purchase of mobile messaging startup WhatsApp, reports said. Citing two people “familiar with the matter” Reuters revealed on Thursday […]
Look Mom, even the House of Lords says the #righttobeforgotten is not right
July 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The relation between the UK and the EU is like that passionate thing usually developped between a cat and a dog. Historically since the very beginning of this love and hate affair in 1973, when London realized that the European project is a ‘good’ one, the UK always seeked to receive special attention, reminding to […]“None of our member states has the dimension to compete with China and the US, not even Germany!”, Head of EUREKA Pedro Nunes on another Sting Exclusive
June 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
This revealing exclusive interview with Pedro Nunes, Head of EUREKA, was conducted by Carlo Motta at the European Sting’s pavilion during European Business Summit 2014. In the following interview Carlo Motta will be signalled as C.M and Mr Nune as P.N. C.M.: I am very please to welcome to our booth Mr Pedro Nunes, Head of EUREKA. So […]“Is Europe innovative? Oh, Yes we are very innovative!”, Director General of the European Commission Mr Robert-Jan Smits on another Sting Exclusive
June 9, 2014 by Leave a Comment
This revealing exclusive interview with Mr Robert-Jan Smits, Director General of the European Commission for Research and Innovation, was conducted by Carlo Motta at the European Sting’s pavilion during European Business Summit 2014. In the following interview Carlo Motta will be signalled as C.M and Mr Smits as R.J.S. C.M. : It is a big honour and pleasure to welcome in […]Teamgum @ TheNextWeb 2014
May 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Written by Divyesh Kharade, Co_founder of Teamgum Teamgum was amongst the 96 Startups which were selected for the TNW Boost program and as a part of the package we were promised a stand to showcase our product, PR coverage and a star list of people we could meet and network with, thanks to WeTransfer. The real […]CDNIFY @ TheNextWeb 2014
May 6, 2014 by 1 Comment
Written by James Mulvany, senior entrepreneur and founder of CDNify I arrived in Amsterdam late Wednesday evening with CDNify’s marketing strategist Mike, checked into our rooms at the Citizen M hotel ready for the following days ahead. We were up bright and early on Thursday morning and made our way to the venue. My first time […]SoftLayer, an IBM company, @ TheNextWeb 2014: Masters of Failure and Change
May 5, 2014 by 1 Comment
Written by Michalina Kiera, Senior Marketing Manager EMEA at SoftLayer, an IBM Company If you stand still, you go backwards. We’ve all heard that at least once and a lot of us claim to live by that rule. But do we really? How often does the risk of challenging the status quo hinder our decisions and […]The Next Web 2014, the biggest European conference on Internet so far and the Absence of Brussels from Amsterdam
April 28, 2014 by 14 Comments
The time for Europe’s biggest conference on Internet had come and the European Sting’s team was in Amsterdam on 24 and 25 April 2014, as official media sponsor of The Next Web 2014, “Power to the People”. As every year, the Web’s biggest names came together at Westerpark in Amsterdam to share insights and views […]The European Sting @ Mobile World Congress 2014, Creating What’s Next for the World. Can EU Policy follow?
March 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
It was the end of February and the time for the world’s biggest annual mobile technology event had come. The rendez-vous was given at the same place as last year; at the beautiful capital of Catalunya, Barcelona, that is also the Mobile World Capital. The European Sting was media sponsor of the world’s most magnificent […]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 […]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 […]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 […]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 […]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 […]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 […]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 […]
