The Maltese EU Council Presidency reached an informal agreement with the European Parliament on the EU-sponsored scheme ‘WiFi4EU’ in order to promote free internet in town halls, hospitals, parks, and other public spaces.

The objective is to have the scheme in place by the end of 2017. The Presidency will submit the outcome of the talks for approval by the member states in the coming weeks, so that the project can kick off as planned.

The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission reached the political agreement on the WiFi4EU initiative and its funding last night. The agreement includes a commitment by the three institutions to assign €120 million for free Wi-Fi services in 6,000 to 8,000 municipalities in all member states.

As stated by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the WiFi4EU initiative will contribute to the vision of having "every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centres of public life by 2020."

The multilingual ‘WiFi4EU’ portal will provide users like municipalities, libraries, hospitals, and other public bodies to apply for funding to install local wireless access points, using simple administrative procedures.

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