Today, the Commission has adopted the second Work Programme for the digital part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital, which defines the scope and objectives of EU-funded actions to improve Europe’s digital connectivity infrastructures. These actions will receive around €865 million of funding from 2024 to 2027.
Improving Europe’s connectivity infrastructure is fundamental for achieving Europe’s 2030 Digital Decade objectives to connect all citizens and business with 5G and gigabit connectivity. By fostering public and private investments, CEF Digital contributes to connectivity projects of common EU interest and to the deployment of safe, secure and sustainable high-performance infrastructure, such as Gigabit and 5G networks, across the EU.
The new CEF Digital Work Programme will support actions in the following areas:
-
- The deployment of 5G infrastructures in Europe, co-financing large-scale projects promoting the rollout of Gigabit and standalone 5G infrastructures, as well as the integration of edge cloud and computing capabilities in vertical sectoral applications, such as health, manufacturing, transport, and logistics;
- The deployment and significant upgrade of backbone networks, including quantum communication networks and submarine cables, to increase the performance, resilience, and capacity of connectivity networks within and between Member States, as well as between the Union and third countries;
- The deployment of operational digital platforms for transport or energy infrastructures, by optimising the energy use of information and communication technology (ICT) and reducing its environmental impact. These operational digital platforms will build on and integrate with existing and emerging European data, cloud and edge computing, and connectivity infrastructures, funded by the Digital Europe Programme and Horizon Europe.