This "against all odds" drivel flows from the Serious People^TM conventional wisdom that dictates that:

• Broadband is a luxury item, not a basic utility like water, electricity or sanitation.
  
• What's holding back broadband is price and affordability, not telco monopolies shenanigans.
  
• We're in an "economic slowdown", ergo,broadband development should peter out.

Of course the facts (the stubborn little bastards) don't agree, and Viviane Reding says pretty much the same thing as you do:
Viviane Reding:

Enhanced competition is driving better services, and consumers nowadays regard their broadband internet access as an essential part of life

So at the end, our only beef is with the title: you'll have noticed that nowhere in the body of the press release can you find the expression "against all odds" again.

So it certainly looks like this Europe.Is.Doomed case is not coming from the EU Commission itself, but can be narrowed down to the people who are entrusted to putting EU press releases in English language together. What does it tell us, hmmmm?

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.