ICT cash from Brussels will soar as of 2021

Technology will play a central role in the new European Union subsidies package for the 2021-27 period, the Multiannual Financial Framework, which is currently being planned by EU and national authorities.

Expenditure from the new package on technology and innovation, as well as the digital transformation, will be particularly increased. It also appears that information and communication technologies (ICT) will be essential for the horizontal axis of priority linking environmentally friendly growth with energy and climate change.

Sources say that the new program will offer Greece subsidies of 19.7 billion euros, of which 9 billion euros will go toward ICT. People close to the negotiations say that a very large part of the support of the European Commission’s objectives requires investments in ICT. In the current subsidy period ICT spending for Greece has amounted to 2 billion euros, though only a small part of that has been absorbed.

The program period with the highest ICT funds to date concerning Greece was that between 2000 and 2007, when about 3 billion euros was allocated in the context of the Information Society program.