These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week

Happy Friday!

This week, we tracked 62 tech funding deals worth more than €427 million, as well as 10 M&A transactions across Europe (including Turkey, Russia and Israel).

We listed every single deal in our weekly newsletter (note: the full newsletter is now available to paying subscribers only). Here’s an extra overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:

1) The European Commission and the European Investment Fund have announced a new pan-European venture capital funds-of-funds programme that will raise €2.1 billion in total to invest in VC funds around Europe.

2) France is entitled to bring criminal proceedings against local managers of ride-hailing app Uber for running an illegal taxi service, the EU top court ruled on Tuesday, dealing the Silicon Valley start-up another legal setback.

3) Czech Republic-based Avast, the world’s largest consumer antivirus supplier by customers, said on Thursday it will apply to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange in what could be a blockbuster float expected to value the company at around $4 billion.

4) The valuation of Revolut, a UK-based international payments startup, is set to quintuple in less than a year due to a new fundraising round, people familiar with the matter told Recode. DST Global, an investing firm founded by Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner, is expected to lead a round that values the company at about $1.4 billion, not including the new cash.

5) The encrypted messaging app Telegram must immediately be blocked in Russia, a Moscow court ruled Friday due to Telegram’s refusal to hand over the keys to its users’ conversations.

6) Bitmovin, the Austrian online video software and infrastructure company founded by two of the creators of the MPEG-DASH video streaming standard, has raised $30 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Highland Europe, with participation from existing investors Atomico, Constantia New Business, Dawn Capital, and Y Combinator.

7) This week, 25 European countries signed a Declaration of cooperation on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Member States agreed to work together on the most important issues raised by Artificial Intelligence, from ensuring Europe's competitiveness in the research and deployment of AI, to dealing with social, economic, ethical and legal questions.

8) Mapillary, the Swedish mapping platform, has raised $15 million in a Series B round led by BMW i Ventures with participation from Samsung Catalyst Fund, NavInfo, Atomico, and Sequoia Capital.

9) Spotify has acquired rights company Loudr in a move to beef up its ability to track and pay royalties to music publishers.

10) Santander has become the first international bank to launch a cross-border payments system based on blockchain, using the new technology with a view to taking on specialist fintech startups such as TransferWise. The “One Pay FX” service will become available for the bank’s customers in Spain, the UK, Brazil and Poland.

Bonus link: We’re hiring a European technology business reporter to join tech.eu’s team!