Brussels, 5 December 2023
The Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, an Important Project of Common European Interest (‘IPCEI’) to support research, development and first industrial deployment of advanced cloud and edge computing technologies across multiple providers in Europe.
The project, called IPCEI Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services (IPCEI CIS), was jointly notified by seven Member States: France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.
The Member States will provide up to €1.2 billion in public funding, which is expected to unlock additional €1.4 billion in private investments. As part of this IPCEI, 19 companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), will undertake 19 highly innovative projects.
IPCEI CIS
IPCEI CIS is the first IPCEI in the cloud and edge computing domain. It concerns the development of the first interoperable and openly accessible European data processing ecosystem, the multi-provider cloud to edge continuum. It will develop data processing capabilities, and software and data sharing tools that enable federated, energy-efficient and trustworthy cloud and edge distributed data processing technologies and related services. The innovation provided by IPCEI CIS will enable a new spectrum of possibilities for European businesses and citizens, advancing the Digital and Green transition in Europe.
The participating companies will develop an open-source software that will allow for real-time and low-latency (i.e., a few milliseconds) services by distributed computing resources close to the user, thereby reducing the need to transmit large volumes of data to centralised cloud servers. The individual projects cover the entire cloud edge continuum, from the basic software layer to sector-specific applications.
These projects aim at enabling the digital and green transition by:
(i) providing software that will develop the necessary infrastructure-related capabilities to build the base layers of the edge cloud stack;
(ii) developing a common reference architecture to serve as a blueprint for how to set up and operate a cloud and edge system;
(iii) developing a set of advanced cloud and edge services that can be deployed seamlessly across networks of providers; and
(iv) developing sector-specific cases (for instance in the energy, health, and maritime sectors).
The research, development and first industrial deployment phases will run between 2023 and 2031, with timelines varying depending on the project and the companies involved. First novel result of the IPCEI – an open-source reference infrastructure – may be expected around the end of 2027. At least 1,000 direct and indirect highly qualified jobs are expected to be created during these phases, and many more in the commercialisation phase.
The Commission’s assessment
The Commission assessed the proposed IPCEI under EU State aid rules, more specifically its 2021 Communication on Important Projects of Common European Interest (‘IPCEI Communication’). Where private initiatives supporting breakthrough innovation would not materialise because of the significant risks such projects entail, the IPCEI rules enable Member States to jointly fill the gap to overcome these important market failures. At the same time, the IPCEI rules ensure that the EU economy at large benefits from the supported investments and limit potential distortions to competition.
The Commission has found that the IPCEI CIS fulfils the required conditions set out in its Communication and is in line with State aid rules.
In particular, the Commission concluded that:
- IPCEI CIS directly contributes to achieving several EU objectives of a digital, greener, more secure, resilient and sovereign economy as set out in key EU policy initiatives, such as the Europe’s Digital Decade, the European Green Deal, the European Data Strategy, and the 2030 Digital Compass.
- All 19 projects that form part of the IPCEI are highly ambitious, as they aim at developing ground-breaking technologies that go beyond the current state-of-the-art at global scale and will allow major advances in data processing technologies.
- The IPCEI also involves significant technological and financial risks. Therefore, public support is necessary to provide incentives to companies to carry out their individual projects.
- Aid to individual companies is limited to what is necessary, proportionate and does not unduly distort competition. In particular, the Commission has verified that the total planned maximum aid amounts are in line with the eligible costs of the projects and their funding gaps. Furthermore, if projects receiving large amount of aid turn out to be very successful, generating extra net revenues, the companies will return part of the aid received to the respective Member State (claw-back mechanism).
- This IPCEI will produce significant positive spill-over effects for the non-participating companies, competitors, and final users throughout Europe. The results and knowledge of the project will be widely shared by participant companies with the European industry and scientific community, beyond the companies and the countries that are part of the IPCEI. In particular, the participants will:
- (i) beyond their usual open-source software practices and business models, grant permissive, non-restrictive open-source software licenses to any interested party and actively engage with and contribute to the development of open-source communities;
- (ii) provide access to interested parties to at least 20% of the capacity of the edge nodes and laboratories employed in their projects;
- (iii) expand the developed technologies to additional economy sectors;
- (iv) perform targeted trainings, produce self-standing technical materials, engage in conferences, publications, partnerships with universities and research organisations; and
- (v) license intellectual property rights at fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.
Funding, participants and structure of the IPCEI
The IPCEI involves 19 projects from 19 companies. These direct participants will closely cooperate to develop together a first, EU-wide and interoperable multi-provider cloud edge continuum in Europe.
The 19 projects are part of the wider IPCEI CIS ecosystem, involving more than 90 indirect partners, including large, medium and small enterprises, start-ups, and research organisations located in five additional EU Member States (Belgium, Croatia, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Slovenia). Public support to projects handled by research organisations do not require the Commission’s approval, as it does not qualify as aid when certain conditions are met. The indirect partners, which seek limited aid amounts, can obtain the public support under the General Block Exemption Regulation, which does not need to be notified to the Commission for approval. Their projects are not considered part of the IPCEI as such.
Several Member States (Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain) included their participation in the IPCEI CIS in their Recovery and Resilience Plans. These Member States have the possibility to fund their projects through the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
More information on the amount of aid to individual participants will be available in the public version of the Commission’s decision, once confidentiality issues have been resolved with Member States and third parties.
Background
The Commission’s approval of this IPCEI is part of the wider Commission efforts to ensure a digital, greener, more secure, resilient, and sovereign European economy.
Today’s decision concerns the seventh integrated IPCEI approved under EU State aid rules. It is the fourth IPCEI approved on the basis of the 2021 IPCEI Communication that sets out the criteria under which several Member States can support transnational projects of strategic significance for the EU under Article 107(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The Communication aims at encouraging Member States to support highly innovative projects that make a clear contribution to economic growth, jobs and competitiveness.
The IPCEI Communication complements other State aid rules, such as the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) and the Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation, which allow supporting innovative projects whilst ensuring that potential competition distortions are limited. The GBER enables innovative IPCEI-related projects to receive aid up to €50 million without requiring notification to the Commission, while allowing them to still be recognised as part of the ecosystem created by the IPCEI.
The IPCEI Communication supports investments for research, development and innovation, first industrial deployment on condition that the projects receiving this funding are highly innovative, of European relevance and do not cover mass production or commercial activities. They also require extensive dissemination of new knowledge and spill-over commitments that will spread the benefits of the projects throughout the EU, as well as a detailed competition assessment to minimise any undue distortions in the internal market.
As part of an effort to support a transparent, inclusive, and faster design of IPCEIs, on 17 May 2023 the Commission has published a Code of Good Practices (“Code”) on DG COMP’s dedicated IPCEI website. The Code is based on the knowledge, experience and lessons learnt on the State aid assessments for previous and on-going IPCEIs. The aim of this Code is to ensure a more transparent, inclusive, faster and streamlined design and assessment of IPCEI projects. It constitutes a manual of good practices addressed to national authorities, the Coordinator Member State selected by the national authorities, companies benefitting from aid based on the IPCEI rules, and the Commission services. The Code is particularly useful for Member States with little or no experience with the IPCEI instrument.
In addition, the Commission has set up the Joint European Forum for Important Projects of Common European Interests (JEF-IPCEI). The objective of the forum is to identify areas of strategic EU interest for potential future IPCEIs and to increase the effectiveness of the IPCEI process. The JEF-IPCEI brings together experts from Member States and the Commission services, as well as representatives from the industry, academia, and other stakeholders where relevant.
The non-confidential version of the decisions will be made available under the case numbers SA.102498 (France), SA.102517 (Germany), SA.102520 (Hungary), SA.102519 (Italy), SA.102516 (The Netherlands), SA.102527 (Poland) and SA.102514 (Spain) in the State Aid Register on the competition website once any confidentiality issues have been resolved. New publications of state aid decisions on the internet and in the Official Journal are listed in the State Aid Weekly e-News.
Quote(s)
This Important Project of Common European Interest is the first one in the cloud and edge computing domain. The participating Member States provide up to €1.2 billion in public funding, expected to unlock an additional €1.4 billion in private investments. The IPCEI will provide for highly ambitious research, necessary to enable the uptake of innovative data processing applications and services for European businesses, public administrations, and citizens. Today’s decision makes sure that public support is well targeted and sufficient to enable the project to pursue its ambitious goals, while safeguarding the level playing field and ensuring that strong positive spill-overs can be generated throughout the Union.
The IPCEI approved today is crucial to deliver breakthrough innovation on Cloud and Edge technologies that fulfil European requirements for interoperability, data privacy, sustainability and cybersecurity. It will also provide the technologies and solutions to reach our Digital Decade Strategy 2030 objectives: a 75% of cloud uptake by EU enterprises and more than 10.000 edge nodes across Europe. With this IPCEI, Europe will reinforce its innovation leadership in next generation data processing services.
Commissioner Thierry Breton – 05/12/2023
Source – EU Commission
Remarks by Commissioner Reynders on an Important Project of Common European Interest in cloud and edge computing technologies
Bonjour à toutes et tous,
C’est un plaisir de vous retrouver aujourd’hui pour vous présenter un nouveau projet important d’intérêt européen commun. Vous connaissez probablement mieux ces projets sous l’acronyme anglophone d’IPCEI.
Aujourd’hui, la Commission a approuvé un projet important d’intérêt européen commun, en vertu des règles européennes en matière d’aides d’État.
Ce projet soutient le développement d’une approche innovante pour effectuer le traitement de données de manière extrêmement large.
Cette approche a pour objectifs de permettre de mêler la gestion de capacités de traitement de données centralisées – connue sous le nom du cloud –, avec des capacités de traitement de données décentralisées, donc plutôt près des utilisateurs, c’est-à-dire près de là où les données sont générées, et connue sous le nom de edge.
Cet IPCEI cherchera à développer les logiciels permettant d’intégrer les capacités de cloud et de edge offertes par différents fournisseurs, formant ce qu’on appelle en jargon technique un « continuum cloud-to-edge avec des multi-fournisseurs ».
En d’autres mots, cela permettra à une multitude de fournisseurs d’offrir des services cloud et edge interopérables, et accessibles à tous et toutes.
Ce continuum réduira la nécessité de transmettre de grands volumes de données à des serveurs centralisés et permettra ainsi un traitement des données en temps réel. Les consommateurs ne souffriront plus de délais de traitement des données trop longs.
Avec ces objectifs en tête, les participants à l’IPCEI conduiront des activités de recherche et développement (R&D) sur des logiciels open source qui permettront le traitement des données suivant une approche commune et décentralisée, ce que l’on appelle l’edge.
Cet edge permettra d’être proche de l’utilisateur, mais fera toujours partie d’un système central de traitement des données plus important, le Cloud.
Le développement et l’utilisation de briques logicielles communes garantira l’interopérabilité et assurera que les centres de données à la périphérie du réseau sont ouverts à une multitude de fournisseurs de services compatibles. Ainsi, les données pourront être traitées de manière adéquate et durable à proximité de l’utilisateur, en toute sécurité.
En permettant de tester et de valider le logiciel à l’aide de cas d’utilisation spécifiques à certains secteurs en tant que premier déploiement industriel, l’IPCEI contribuera à démontrer qu’un continuum cloud-to-edge multi-fournisseurs peut fonctionner dans la pratique.
Il permettra à terme – et au-delà de cet projet commun – l’émergence d’applications innovantes entre autres pour des services publics numériques de proximité, l’agriculture intelligente, les véhicules automatiques et connectés, ou le suivi de patients en temps réel à distance.
Ce projet innovant offrira un nouvel éventail de possibilités aux acteurs européens du secteur numérique, essentiel à la double transition verte et numérique de l’Europe.
Seulement un projet européen commun de cette envergure peut contribuer à faire avancer l’industrie européenne là où des innovations coordonnées sont nécessaires.
L’IPCEI “Cloud” a été notifié conjointement en avril et mai 2022 par 7 États membres : la France, l’Allemagne, la Hongrie, l’Italie, les Pays-Bas, la Pologne et l’Espagne. Il rassemble 19 entreprises qui ont proposé 19 projets innovants.
Les États membres participants fourniront jusqu’à 1,2 milliard d’euros de financement public. Cette somme devrait permettre de débloquer 1,4 milliard d’euros d’investissements privés supplémentaires, ce qui portera le total des investissements dans le projet à environ 2,6 milliards d’euros.
L’IPCEI “Cloud” offrira également un écosystème plus large, qui réunira plus de 100 entreprises de 12 États membres au total.
Outre les 19 participants directs, plus de 90 partenaires indirects seront impliqués. Il s’agit de petites et moyennes entreprises et de startups des États membres participants, ainsi que de cinq autres États membres : la Belgique, la Croatie, la Lettonie, le Luxembourg et la Slovénie.
Ces derniers accorderont des aides dans le cadre du Règlement Général d’Exemption par Catégorie. Cela signifie que l’aide publique ne doit pas être notifiée à la Commission et qu’elle n’est pas évaluée dans la présente décision. Ceci permet donc de soutenir plus rapidement et plus facilement les projets innovants qui nécessitent des aides d’État moins importantes.
L’IPCEI “Cloud” est le septième projet important intégré d’intérêt européen commun approuvé en vertu des règles européenne en matière d’aides d’État.
Comme vous le savez, la Commission a déjà approuvé 6 autres projets intégrés depuis 2018, avec la participation de 21 États membres. Deux IPCEI ont été approuvés dans trois domaines : la microélectronique, les batteries et l’hydrogène.
Ils incluent 255 projets de 179 entreprises, pour un montant d’aide total de 26.7 milliards d’euros, débloquant plus de 50 milliards d’euros d’investissements privés.
In IPCEI “Cloud”, the participating companies will focus their work on four interconnected workstreams. These workstreams form the building blocks necessary for the establishment of the multi-provider cloud edge continuum.
The first workstream “Cloud Edge Continuum Infrastructure” will develop software, such as interfaces, that ensures that existing infrastructure can be ready for and compatible with the innovative technologies that will be developed within this IPCEI.
For example, a project will develop an open-source software able to integrate edge nodes from different providers over which common services can be supplied.
The second workstream “Cloud Edge Capabilities” will develop a common reference architecture which will provide the essential software layer, which will enable the interconnection of different providers in a cloud to edge continuum.
For instance, a project will create an open-source software that will let businesses create Private Clouds across several sites by integrating resources from various data centres.
The third workstream “Advanced Smart Data Processing Tools and Services” will develop a set of advanced cloud and edge services, which will be horizontally applicable to all users and sectors and will be deployed seamlessly across provider networks.
For example, a project will create generative Artificial Intelligence models on text and multimedia content in languages other than English providing also a platform with Artificial Intelligence models to ease the development of Artificial Intelligence applications.
The fourth workstream “Advanced Applications” will put together all elements developed in the previous workstreams to demonstrate the successful application of the cloud edge continuum capabilities in selected sector-specific cases, such as in the energy, health, and maritime sectors.
Such demonstrations will serve as proof of concepts and will aim to enable the transfer of sector-specific results also across other sectors. For instance, a project will develop the open-source software to integrate edge nodes into different sorts of industrial equipment of traditional industries.
To give you an example: the German company SAP aims at developing an open reference architecture for a secure and sustainable cloud edge infrastructure that includes intelligent optimization methods for data transparency and security. This reference infrastructure will be the basis for future software development and a prerequisite for a pan-European cloud edge infrastructure. This project is expected to deliver its first results around the end of 2027.
IPCEI “Cloud” is expected to create around 1,000 direct and indirect jobs of highly qualified professionals.
That is data scientists, software engineers, cloud architects, cybersecurity engineers, or Artificial Intelligence specialists. In the commercialisation phase, it is expected to create further 5,000 new employment positions.
State aid rules for IPCEIs allow Member States to pool resources and cooperate across borders.
After having assessed all projects individually, as well as the IPCEI as a whole, we have come to the conclusion that the public support notified by the Member States is compatible with the internal market.
In our assessment, we have verified that IPCEI Cloud will have a concrete and significant contribution to EU key objectives, in particular to the European Data Strategy aiming at real time data processing services delivered by the Cloud and Edge Continuum.
Our assessment has also shown that the projects are truly innovative to ensure that public money is used to make our economy innovative and efficient.
We have also found that the State aid is necessary to overcome important market failures in the sector of cloud to edge services. National funding, including those from the national Recovery and Resilience Plans, shall help to overcome such important market failures.
We have also ensured that the public support is limited to the amount necessary for the project to happen.
In our assessment, we have also ensured that IPCEI “Cloud” generates strong spill-over effects:
For example, companies developing open-source software will grant permissive, non-restrictive licenses to any interested party. They will also actively engage and contribute to the development of open-source communities.
In addition, those companies having edge nodes or laboratories supported by aid for the purposes of their projects will offer access for free to at least 20% of their capacity to any interested party, which can use it for its own research and testing activities.
Participant companies, which will be testing their solutions in real-life scenarios, will expand the technologies and know-how to other sectors. This will enable other companies to adapt the new technologies into their own solutions.
The companies will also widely share the knowledge generated through this IPCEI beyond the participants and the Member States that are already part of it. This will happen through trainings, scientific publications, conferences, partnerships with universities and research organisations, as well as licensing of intellectual property rights at FRAND terms.
Pour résumer, je tiens à souligner que le résultat de notre évaluation a démontré que les projets peuvent être réalisés avec environ 30 % (donc 400 millions d’euros) de fonds publics en moins, par rapport à ce qui avait été initialement notifié par les États membres.
Il est également important de souligner que les bénéficiaires recevant des montants d’aide importants restitueront une partie de l’aide reçue si leurs projets s’avèrent plus rentables que prévu. C’est ce que garantit le mécanisme dit de “récupération”, le « claw-back ».
À partir du moment où cet IPCEI a été pré-notifié à la Commission, nous l’avons évalué en un peu plus d’un an. Cela peut sembler long pour soutenir la recherche et le développement dans un secteur aussi dynamique. Mais compte tenu de la complexité et de la nature intégrée des projets dans un certain nombre d’États membres, la décision d’aujourd’hui est un très bon résultat.
À l’avenir, nous nous engageons à rendre l’évaluation des IPCEI encore plus rapide. Nous sommes aussi certains qu’avec des initiatives récentes telle que le Forum européen conjoint, nous sommes sur la bonne voie. L’établissement de bonnes pratiques sera également important à cet égard.
Tout cela contribuera à intensifier les efforts conjoints de la Commission et des États membres dans ce domaine.
La Commission coopère activement avec les États membres sur trois autres IPCEI à venir. Ils concernent les domaines de l’hydrogène et de la santé.
Comme toujours, la Commission est prête à apporter son soutien, à fournir des conseils et à coordonner les efforts. Tout cela, en protégeant l’égalité des conditions de concurrence dans le marché unique.
Source – EU Commission