open for business - [europe]

An upcoming European Commission decision will define what sort of fibre networks we get at home. The EU may be donating just a billion euros in direct aid towards fibre-optic networks - carved off the huge common agricultural budget - but the regulatory power that it wields could release tens of billions more euros in private investment. However, there is a hold-up. A ferocious struggle is underway over the future of European telecoms - and perhaps of the European economy as well.