Europe to waste tax revenue on free Wi-Fi

The European Parliament has given the green light to squander EUR 120 million in “free” wifi installations in six to eight thousand municipalities. “In Flanders, we no longer believe in freebies, but Europe keeps on doling them out with abandon,” says MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt, who is following this dossier up for the ECR The N-VA is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), a conservative, eurorealistic parliamentary group in the European Parliament. The N-VA shares their realistic view of the European project and also advocates for the correct and intensive application of the subsidiarity principle. For example, we must not be afraid to ask ourselves if it would be better to leave certain European initiatives to the Member States. The N-VA also identifies with the emphases that the ECR places on the social-economic issues. Since the 2014 elections, the ECR has become the third largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament. ECR group. “Free train tickets, free Wi-Fi, free museums... there’s just no end to it all! And this at a time when we’re all supposed to be trying to reduce expenditures. It’s misplaced and counterproductive.”

With the WiFi4EU project, Europe aims to bring internet connections to places where they do not yet exist. However, Anneleen Van Bossuyt questions the effectiveness of this approach: “The traditional groups in the European Parliament are portraying it as though Europe will suddenly be gifting whole cities with free Wi-Fi. But, of course, the budget is much too limited for that. No, on the contrary, Europe must focus on 5G connections and super-fast internet: truly necessary investments since all our devices and vehicles will soon be connected to the internet.”

Ill-considered policy

The Commission also hopes to reach older people and tourists with this project; however, according to Anneleen Van Bossuyt, these are two groups that often make no use of this free WiFi: “Older people who are already less mobile are not suddenly going to travel to a different area in order to be able to surf the internet. In addition, they also need to have a mobile device, and this is often where the stumbling block is. And tourists too have much less need of free WiFi since the elimination of roaming costs.”

Poorly-performing regions rewarded

“Europe is only granting subsidies to municipalities that do not have free hotspots yet,” Anneleen Van Bossuyt also notes. “Flemish cities and municipalities that already offer free internet are being left high and dry. It therefore looks like this is the latest in a long line of Transfers The money flows from Flanders to Brussels and Wallonia are called transfers. The transfers from the federal budget, the Financing Law and social security amount to between 6 and 7 billion euros per year, and 11 billion euros if debt repayments are included. The size of the transfers is always contested by the French-speaking side or they are just referred to as normal solidarity contributions. A study by Vives (KU Leuven) revealed that the transfers did not serve solidarity, but had a paralysing effect on the growth of both the Walloon and Flemish economies. transfers to poorly-performing regions.”