A new – original proposal for EU finances was presented by the Greek Finance Minister, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, in an interview he granted to Politico. The president of the Eurogroup is proposing a potentially bold new way of raising money through redirecting profitable revenue from national spectrum auctions in Brussels, just as the Union's seven-year budget debate is intensifying.
As quoted in Politico, «...it's a Dragi telecommunications policy.», , citing the former Italian Prime Minister's plan to reverse Europe's economic decline, which called for greater coordination and harmonisation in the way national governments grant licences to the frequencies that feed mobile networks.
Such regulation would also have the advantage of encouraging greater European development of critical technology across the bloc.
EXCLUSIVE: Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis is floating a potentially bold new way to raise money for the EU:
Redirect lucrative processes from national spectrum opinions to Brussels.
But the ideaa will be a hard sell.
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What applies to today
Today, telecommunications providers in Europe are invited to participate in different national procedures for obtaining spectrum, with auction revenues flowing into the state budgets. According to the European Association of Connect Europe telecommunications operators, since 2020 companies have spent more than EUR 50 billion on obtaining spectrum licences.
This practice has been repeatedly criticized, as it is considered to burden suppliers financially rather than encourage new investments. Former EU commissioner Thierry Breton had previously described the spectrum «Cash-producing cow» for governments.
The Greek example...
At the same time, Mr Pierrakakis proposed that Europe should use the 2020 Greek experience as a model, which he described as «most innovative auction». At the time that Greece decided to allocate 25% of the revenue from the spectrum auction to the creation of a venture capital fund, with the aim of financing companies operating in the 5G ecosystem.
What he proposed for the European budget
According to him, such a model would allow Europe to have more resources for investment and development initiatives as a whole.
In particular, the idea put forward by the President of the Eurogroup provides that: 75% of the proceeds from frequency auctions will be directed to the European Union's MFF, while the remaining 25% will be channelled to a special investment fund of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
«This idea could fuel the EU budget negotiations for the period 2028-2034 and the wider debate on European competitiveness. Many of my colleagues have already adopted the central philosophy» and concluded:
«We need to move on to a more detailed and thorough phase where we need a specific impact study, steps, etc., to further discuss this issue».
