The EU will announce this week a plan to roll out €9.2bn for broadband across the continent as part of a major infrastructure programme expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coming years.
This broadband initiative is one component of a broader €50bn infrastructure finance package aimed at modernising digital, energy, and transport networks throughout Europe.
Officials hope the broadband investment will encourage additional projects, including rural broadband expansion, where immediate returns for private investors have often been harder to demonstrate.
Earlier targets set by the European Commission called for all households to have broadband speeds of at least 30 Mbps by 2020, with up to half of users able to access speeds above 100 Mbps. Previous Commission estimates put the total cost of achieving those goals at about €270bn.
These upgrades are widely seen as essential to boost Europe’s competitiveness and productivity, but until now the source of the required funding has been uncertain.
Neelie Kroes, then EU digital commissioner, said that the €7bn earmarked for high-speed broadband between 2014 and 2020 would be sufficient to reduce project risk and unlock roughly €50bn in public and private investment.
The detailed proposals, which must be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers before they can move forward, were expected to be published on Wednesday.
“Europe needs fast broadband networks to make its economy more competitive in the future and to generate more jobs and prosperity,” EU sources told the BBC.
“This funding would catalyse much larger investments from private and other public sources. Each euro invested by the Commission could leverage an additional six to fifteen euros.”