Two new strategies

The “great emergencies” are renowned: addressing the economic crisis and unemployment, the consolidation of public finances in EU27, migration landings on the Mediterranean shores, neighbourhood policy, energy security, health and consumer protection, while after the murder of Osama Bin Laden the threat of terrorist attacks has gained primary attention. Along with the “global” questions figure more specific ones, pertaining to everyday life, whereby the European Commission is engaged in projects aimed at bettering the quality of the life of EU citizens, along with the public budget, the single market, the environment. Over the past days the Commission presented two new “strategies”, the first aimed at enhancing the web, the second at protecting biodiversity.A 600 million partnership. Creating “digital ecosystems” and to build “the Internet of the future” to the service of citizens, enterprise and services. It is the purpose of the new €600 million public-private partnership launched by the EU Commission on May 3 that will “support innovation in Europe and help businesses and governments to develop internet solutions that will be capable of managing the exponential increase in online data”. The articulated, ambitious proposal, yet to be implemented, was described in clear terms by European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes: “Whilst so far we have experienced the Internet of connected computers, and connected people, the Internet is now going mobile and it will connect a whole range of machines and objects”. According to the Commissioner, the current Internet is simply “not capable of managing these future data streams, nor is it able to provide the desired accuracy, resilience and safety”. The FI-PPP partnership will involve 152 organizations in the EU that include private companies, research organisations and the public sector, but it is open to contributions from eight areas “where this data revolution could spur innovation and jobs in the mobile, software and service industries”. Europe’s public and private sector co-finance the 5-year project with an equal funding.Case projects in different cities. Europe’s research organisations, public sector and industry have committed to match the EU’s funding of €90 million for the first two-year phase of the programme. “The initiative builds upon existing EU-funded research and works with partners at national and regional level to develop new technologies, services and business models”. Kroes said that the eight case projects, each receiving € 5 million in funding over 2 years, will lead the developments and explore the future Internet in: environmental data in the public domain; making the food value-chain smarter; reaping the benefits of electricity management at community level; making public infrastructure in urban areas more intelligent and efficient developing innovation eco-systems in London, Berlin, Aarhus, Santander and Trento, dealing with respectively transport & environment, waste management, water & sewage, smart metering & street lighting, and water & environment; networked media; increasing efficiency in international logistics value-chains and personal mobility; making urban public areas safer.Protecting the environment and ecosystems. “Biodiversity is our natural capital that we are spending too fast”. European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potocnik uses this image to describe the second proposal by the Executive, regarding the gradual biodiversity loss in Europe caused by numerous factors such as the overexploitation of resources, the uncontrolled spread of non-native species, and climate change. During the past week the EU Commission presented an ad hoc strategy “to protect, value and restore EU biodiversity and ecosystem services by 2050”. The strategy includes six targets “which will reduce the main pressures” on nature and ecosystem services in the EU “by anchoring biodiversity objectives in key sectoral policies” to greatly reduce the threats to biodiversity. The “accompanying actions” include the full implementation of existing nature protection legislation and network of natural reserves; restoring ecosystems and ecosystem services, “notably by the increased use of green infrastructure”; ensuring the sustainability of agriculture and forestry activities; safeguarding and protecting EU fish stocks; controlling invasive species; “stepping up the EU’s contribution to concerted global action to avert biodiversity loss”.