Roberto Viola: “We have good but isolated smart city examples”

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With the EIP-SCC General Assembly taking place in Eindhoven at the end of May, Smart Cities are now at the top of the European political agenda. Smart Cities are a focus area for Horizon 2020 and many projects have already been piloted and implemented across the Union.

Next challenge for smart cities will be to open a European market for interoperable solutions and common procurement specifications. That is the idea now defended by Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission’s DG-CONNECT. Read his opinion by clicking here

M. Viola announces that, in November 2016 and under the EU Urban Agenda, “as part of [its] commitment to improve access to information, advice and investments, the Commission will launch a special portal for cities. It will provide a single, transparent, entry-point for details on EU policies and funding opportunities for cities, including access to finance and technical help from the European investment advisory hub”.

Cities will also be able to find new substantial amounts of money from regional policy funds that have now become available to local authorities as well to invest in infrastructures and innovative services.

Roberto Viola, head of DG-CONNECT (European Commission)

The original article was published on The Parliament Magazine (20.04.2016)

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