Tech-optimism from the heart of Europe. Bridging EU policymaking with Europe's tech entrepreneurs. Led by @KayJebelli
Brussels, Belgium
Joined September 2025
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๐ ๐ช๐บ Welcome to DG Progress! ๐ช๐บ ๐
The European Commission doesnโt yet have a Directorate-General dedicated to Europeโs economic, social, and consumer progressโso weโre filling in.
DG Progress is here to help bridge the gap between Europeโs builders and our policymaking bubble. We will shed light on Europe's strengths, advocate for what its innovators need to make the next great leaps, and share ways to get involved.
๐ฌ Subscribe here: dgprogress.eu/
๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐๐ผ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ, ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ถ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ป ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐
๐ช ๐ซ๐ท Three French moves on crypto, inside a week.
โ ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ด๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐. Paris has made new EU revenue a condition of any deal on the next seven-year budget. โThere will be no unanimity, no agreement on this without the adoption of a robust package of own resources,โ Europe minister Benjamin Haddad has said. The European Parliamentโs proposed levy on crypto assets could now feature in the negotiating text for the first time.
Taxing transfers into a MiCA-licensed stable coin in France, making it harder for exchanges to operate in Europe if they want to service non-MiCA coints, and an additional tax on crypto-assets at the EU level. Three things that will certaintly slow blockchain adoption in Europe, and put us further behind internationally ๐ช๐ช๐บ
๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ฒ ๐ง๐ฒ๐น๐ฒ๐ธ๐ผ๐บ, ๐ข๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ, Telefรณnica ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ณ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐น๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐๐บ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ฑ โ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ถ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ฟ
๐ก ๐ช๐บ On 19 October Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefรณnica and Vodafone signed a Letter of Intent "to explore a potential joint bid" "for the future allocation of spectrum for Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) in Europe".
Four rivals pooling one spectrum bid, then opening it to everyone including each other. They will buy the constellation from somebody else and build ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐๐น๐ฒ๐ themselves.
This is real sovereignty, and the most important kind. It's precisely the kind of cross-border cooperation that European telecos need to engage in if they want to scale. Hopefully European competition authorities don't get in the way. ๐ก๐ช๐บ
Source: telekom.com/en/newsroom/lateโฆ
On "๐ฃ๏ธ Road Ahead" this month,
Four dates worth having in the diary:
30 Oct โ EDPB consultation on web scraping for AI
10 Nov โ the Commissionโs AI and copyright consultation closes
17 Nov โ Apply AI Summit, Brussels
26 Nov โ EU KIDS Act feedback period closes
A consultation open to everyone is decided by whoever files. If you build in Europe, at least two of those are yours.
The full Road Ahead, alongside the rest of Octoberโs coverage ๐
dgprogress.eu/i/221280961/roโฆ
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐น๐ผ๐๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ผ๐ฝ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐ณ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐น, ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฎ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ด๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ถ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐
โ๏ธ The weekend read is Matthias Bauer's occasional paper for ECIPE, "The Real-World Economic Impact of CADA", which came out last week.
His ten-year cumulative estimate: "โฌ๐ฏ๐ฑ.๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ผ, โฌ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐บ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ โฌ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ฏ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ณโ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฒ", with Medium his central case. Roughly ๐ฒ๐ต% of that central figure is not a fee or a licence. It is software migration and rewriting โ engineers moving working code so it sits somewhere that meets an imposed "sovereignty" score.
So why did the EC come out at such a wildly different estimate, and which number is close to the truth?
Worth a weekend if you have ever costed a migration, because that is what two thirds of this bill is, and it is the part that the impact assessment might be weakest on โ๏ธ๐ช๐บ
Source: ecipe.org/publications/econoโฆ
๐๐ช๐ฆ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ด๐ป ๐๐น๐ผ๐๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ถ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐ป ๐ด๐น๐ผ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐น ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฐ๐๐ผ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ, ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐ป๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด
โ๏ธ ๐ฉ๐ช ๐๐ช๐ฆ will run the exercise on Saturday 24 October: "For several hours, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud will operate without a connection to the AWS Global Network backbone." Traffic reroutes over European internet providers.
The operational team is made up ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐จ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐, working from inside the EU. The data centres are in Brandenburg, physically and logically separate from other AWS regions, with a local in-EU copy of the source code. The exercise is built against the Commission's own EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework and the German BSI's C3A criteria.
Credit where it is due. We have criticised that framework for scoring suppliers by where they are domiciled, and what it has produced here is better than a score. An operator is going to demonstrate the thing rather than assert it, in public, on a named date. That is a test a European buyer can watch โ and can ask any other supplier to repeat. โ๏ธ๐ช๐บ
Source: aws.amazon.com/blogs/securitโฆ
๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ด๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ โฌ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ผ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ต๐ผ๐๐๐ฒ๐ต๐ผ๐น๐ฑ๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐
โก ๐ฉ๐ช On 15 October ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ด๐ of Hamburg closed a Series B of โฌ50 million led by Endeit alongside the DeepTech & Climate Fonds. HV Capital, High-Tech Grรผnderfonds, Bosch Ventures, CNI, Acurio Ventures and vent.io took part.
๐ ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ have signed up in three and a half years. The target is a million.
Jan Rabe, chief executive: โThe next generation of power plants will not be built; it will be connected.โ
Wind and solar have made European power nearly free in some hours but not all. What is scarce is not generation but somebody there to soak up the cheap hours and stand down in the tight ones. A battery in a rented flat needs no site, no planning permission and no place in a connection queue. Two hundred thousand of them is a power station nobody had to build. โก๐ช๐บ
Source: htgf.de/en/rabot-energy-raisโฆ
