Europe opts for crude free Wi-Fi policy costing EUR 120 million

As from September, the European Union will be offering free Wi-Fi in 6,000 to 8,000 municipalities. The European Parliament and Council have reached an agreement in this regard. MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt, who is following up this dossier on behalf of 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, finds it inexplicable that this crude freebie policy is actually being put into practice: “With this project, Europe once again wants to buy popularity, but it will cost the taxpayer EUR 120 million. In Flanders, we no longer believe in freebies, but Europe keeps on doling them out with abandon: 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.”

With the WiFi4EU project, Europe wants to bring internet connections to places where they do not yet exist. Here, the municipalities in question will be able to equip their town hall or public park with a free hotspot. But 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 providing whole cities with free Wi-Fi. But, of course, the budget is much too limited for that. The great internet revolution will not come about because of WiFi4EU in one library. No, on the contrary, Europe must focus on 5G mobile connections and super-fast internet, because these truly are necessary investments since all our devices and vehicles will soon be connected to the internet.”

Worst-performing students rewarded once again

According to Anneleen Van Bossuyt, the agreement rewards regions that perform poorly regarding internet connections: “Europe is only granting subsidies to municipalities that do not have free hotspots yet. Currently, there are already an estimated 791,000 hotspots and 69 million homespots in Europe. It 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.”