High-speed Internet: EU leaders reject binding targets[fr][de] 

No mention of any concrete targets for the deployment of high-speed networks across Europe is made in the conclusions of the Spring Summit, which took place in Brussels on 13 and 14 March. The only explicit indication is a goal of achieving one fast connection per school by 2010. 

However, even there, leaders did not set themselves a binding objective: "Member states should aim" to make high-speed internet available to all schools, read the statement. There is thus no obligation - contrary to other fields, such as energy or environment, where precise targets have been matched with strict deadlines (EurActiv 13/03/08).

The lenient line endorsed by EU leaders is at odds with the much more ambitious targets set by Commission in its latest report on the Lisbon Strategy, where it proposed achieving a 30% broadband penetration rate by 2010 (EurActiv 12/12/07).

According to the latest figures available, the average penetration of high-speed Internet connections across EU is at 18%, with deep gaps among member states. Northern EU countries, such as Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium are world leaders, well ahead even of very advanced nations like South Korea or Japan.

Conversely, in Eastern and Southern Europe penetration rates are often well below 10%. What's more, more than half of the EU members are under the 18% average. Among the most developed EU states, Italy and Ireland are the ones lagging behind.

EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding is due to present an updated report on the state of the European broadband economy next Wednesday, with the publication of the Telecom markets progress report.

In the majority of the member states, scarce levels of penetration go hand in hand with partial coverage. The situation in rural areas has be defined as "desperate" by an EU official. In countries like Greece or Slovakia, less than 30% of remote zones have the infrastructure to access fast Internet. In the Czech Republic no rural areas are covered, so that households in the countryside are completely cut off from this new technology.

Even when there is coverage, connection speeds tend to be low. "The actual rate of download speed that European citizens subscribe to is slow compared to other international experiences," reads an internal working document of the European Commission, due to be published by the summer and obtained by EurActiv.

The range between 512 Kbps (Kilobyte per second) and 1 MBps (Megabyte per second) remains the predominant one in Europe. All new bandwidth-hungry services already available on the internet, such as renting a movie or watching television, are simply not at reach at these low speeds, while the "further service development is likely to result in the need for significantly higher broadband speeds of up to 100 megabit per second or more," underlined Commissioner Reding.