EU invests €16 million to boost trans-European digital services
CEF Telecom: The EU has allocated over €16 million investment to expand trans-European digital services.
Twenty-seven projects were chosen for co-funding by the European Union in the fields of Automated Translation, eIdentification & eSignature, eDelivery, eInvoicing and Europeana.
The funding comes from the telecommunications sector programme of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). Entities from 26 EU Member States plus Norway and Iceland (EEA countries) participate in the successful projects.
CEF Telecom funding supports projects of common interest that contribute to increasing the interoperability, connectivity and deployment of trans-European digital infrastructure across the EU, improving the daily lives of citizens, businesses and public administrations, and thus contributing to the development of a Digital Single Market.
The overall budget of CEF Telecom for beefing up trans-European digital services is € 1.04 billion (2014-2020).
What projects CEF Telecom founds in call 2019-1?
Six applications from 21 EU Member States plus Iceland will receive € 4.3 million to provide solutions for the multilingualisation of European digital services.
Five proposals to be awarded € 1.1 million, including applicants from eight EU Member States plus Norway, have been chosen to allow public authorities and businesses to share electronic data and documents in a safe, accurate and trusted manner with other public administrations, businesses and citizens;
The six projects chosen, which will obtain € 2.9 million in funding, including applicants from 13 EU Member States, will deal with cross-border eID authentication and electronic signature acquisition and use;
Eight proposals allocated € 5.9 million cover 16 EU Member States and support the introduction of the European eInvoicing Standard (EN), allowing the seamless flow of digital invoices across the EU;
Two plans were chosen to increase awareness and use of the European Fund for Cultural Heritage. Applicants come from nine EU Member States with a total of € 1,9 million in funding;
Next steps for CEF Telecom call 2019-1
The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) aims to improve trans-European digital services.
The agency will now begin the preparation with the successful beneficiaries of the individual grant agreements. INEA manages calls for proposals and follows up with the beneficiaries on the technical and financial implementation of projects, providing technical expertise and high-quality implementation of programmes.
Insight Analysis
In preparation for the launch of the new Connecting Europe Facility (# CEF2digital) project in 2021, a number of workshops are currently underway to provide stakeholders with the opportunity to learn more and to contribute to its growth.
