It makes so much sense for the EU to start investing in an open web and open source software. A relatively cheap option to move towards a society with better data protection and online civil liberties.
I’ve never took the time to really dig into the details of what the EU is exactly doing right now, but it seems regulation is higher on the list than investment and innovation.
They've actually funded quite a few projects through their Next-Generation Internet initiative [1] [2]. Relatively small grants, but many, and available without too much red tape, which I think is a huge boon in getting projects off the ground - if just a few of those are a success, so is NGI.
(Disclosure: I'm the recipient of one of those grants.)
I’ve never took the time to really dig into the details of what the EU is exactly doing right now, but it seems regulation is higher on the list than investment and innovation.