A new €75 million European initiative aims to reshape the continent’s digital infrastructure by linking telecommunications networks, edge computing sites, cloud platforms and artificial intelligence capabilities under a single federated framework.
The project, known as EURO-3C, was introduced at Mobile World Congress 2026 and is supported by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe research program.
The consortium behind this initiative is led by Telefonica and includes more than 70 organizations in 13 countries, spanning carriers, cloud providers, research institutes, universities and industry.
Representatives of the European Commission and Telefónica executives presented the project as a strategic step towards building a more autonomous and resilient digital foundation for the European economy.
Commenting on the project, Renate Nicolai, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission, said: “The European Commission is strongly promoting a made-in-Europe secure digital communications infrastructure, aiming to take full advantage of the convergence of carriers, edge and cloud together with AI.”
“EURO-3C aligns the efforts of a huge number of European actors towards the common goal of creating a secure, sovereign and convergent communications environment for the benefit of the industrial sectors that supply and use the technology and of society as a whole.”
A federated model for European digital infrastructure
The core of EURO-3C is designed to interconnect existing national and commercial capabilities, rather than creating a single centralized system.
This architecture links communications and cloud resources across multiple carriers and vendors into a coordinated framework, with the goal of ensuring interoperability and shared standards.
More than 70 edge and cloud nodes are already in production in 13 European countries.
By combining distributed computing power and advanced AI-based orchestration tools, the platform aims to deliver high-performance digital services while maintaining strong security and data governance requirements.
This project is in line with the European Union’s Digital Decade 2030 goals, which prioritize secure, sustainable and scalable digital infrastructure as the basis for competitiveness and technological sovereignty.
Expansion across strategic sectors
Unlike many research-driven efforts, EURO-3C is being implemented directly into an operational environment.
This infrastructure is expected to support applications in areas such as automotive, transportation, energy, and public safety where low latency, reliability, and data protection are critical.
The consortium plans to demonstrate nine large-scale use cases designed to validate technical performance and commercial feasibility.
These pilots are intended to test whether the federated model can scale across borders and industries while maintaining interoperability between different vendors and carriers.
By integrating edge computing with cloud platforms and communications networks, the initiative aims to reduce the fragmentation of Europe’s digital services landscape and provide enterprises with a more consistent framework for deploying advanced applications.
Industrial cooperation on a pan-European scale
One of the characteristics of EURO-3C is its wide range of participants. More than 70 organizations are involved, including small and medium-sized businesses, technology manufacturers, research centers, and major industry groups.
This cooperation reflects a broader European strategy to strengthen control over key parts of the digital value chain, while promoting cross-border industrial cooperation.
As Europe faces increasing global competition in cloud computing and AI infrastructure, initiatives such as EURO-3C signal a shift towards coordinated, production-ready digital infrastructure projects aimed at delivering measurable industrial impact, rather than being limited to pilot programs.
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