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78 - Roberto Viola: Shaping Europe's Digital Future

Episode 78

Betrouwbare Bronnen (Reliable Sources) is a Dutch podcast, published twice a week. This episode is completely in English.

Our guest in this episode is Roberto Viola, director-general for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT) of the European Commission.

He says: “The most important lesson I learned, is: never say it will never happen. We have partly lost our capacity to dream. That explains a little bit the problem we have in finding the next big thing. But the next big thing is with us.”

Europe has a lot to do when it comes to basic electronic components and supercomputing, he says. “We are catching up, but Europe is not in the forefront.” The Netherlands has to do better in 5G. It is lagging behind in organising the spectrum and releasing frequencies, he warns.

Europe’s digital boss announces a ‘tool box’ to help EU-memberstates how to cope with the risks while investing in 5G. One of the main concerns is wether it's safe to have contracts with the Chinese company Huawei, frontrunner in 5G. Germany and the Netherlands are hesitating. The tool box will be published 'in a few weeks time', Viola says.

According to Viola it is still possible for Europe to produce an equivalent of Google, Facebook or Apple.

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Reading more

Roberto Viola's blog

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Listening more (in English)

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