On 29 January 2020, the European Commission's new work programme was published. Under the second priority - 'A Europe fit for the digital age', the Commission announced its intention to launch an overarching strategy on the subject.

On 19 February 2020, the Commission published its strategy in the Communication 'Shaping Europe’s digital future'. The strategy addresses the priorities and challenges related to the digital transformation of the EU economy and society, while ensuring the approach taken is human, ethical and values-based. It includes three streams of action: technology that works for people, a fair and competitive digital economy and an open, democratic and sustainable society.

The first stream emphasises the need to invest in connectivity infrastructure (including 5G) and emerging technologies (such as AI, quantum technologies an blockchain). Investment in digital skills in the workforce is also a priority. A review of the NIS Directive was also foreseen, and by now achieved (see related wagon).

Under the second stream the Commission plans to grow the single market for data. The emphasis will not simply be on the flow of data, but on the wide availability of data, which should be easy to access, use and process (see related wagon on data strategy).  In addition other proposals have been launched and some are already finalised on digital finance, including a fintech action plan (see related wagon), legislation around crypto-assets (see related wagon), and legislation to boost “operational and cyber resilience” in the financial sector (see related wagon).

The third stream aims  to ensure that EU values and ethical rules also apply in the online digital sphere, as they would offline. This includes policies on overarching issues such as ensuring plurality of the media, quality content, addressing the threat of external interference in elections and online debate. The Digital Services Act, the review of the e-commerce directive (see related wagon) reconsidered regulation of online platforms and information service providers and product liability aspects.

The strategy calls for a "universally accepted public electronic identity” (see related wagon) and thus has put forward a proposal legislation to revise the eIDAS Regulation from 2014, which already sets out EU-level rules for electronic identification and trust services.

The Commission also plans to integrate environmental policies with its digital strategy, including initiatives to achieve climate-neutral, energy-efficient and sustainable data centres in the EU, and to support a circular economy for information and communications technology equipment.

Finally, from an international perspective, the emphasis is on achieving EU digital sovereignty while respecting international trade.

In the European Parliament, a related own initiative report on Shaping the digital future of Europe was adopted by the IMCO committee on 14 April 2021 and by Parliament as a whole during the May 2021 plenary.

At the Council, on 3 June 2020 COREPER confirmed full agreement on draft Council conclusions on shaping Europe’s digital future and decided to use a written procedure for their adoption by the Council.

References:

• European Commission, adjusted Commission Work Programme 2020 A Union that strives for more, COM(2020) 440
• European Parliament, Shaping the digital future of Europe: removing barriers to the functioning of the digital single market and improving the use of AI for European consumers, 2020/2216(INI)        

Author: Maria del Mar Negreiro Achiaga, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu