Digital Day: ‘Let today be the first day of the Digital Decade’
Today, at the Portuguese Council Presidency’s ‘Digital Day’, Member States and companies signed a number of declarations to advance Europe’s digital transformation. DIGITALEUROPE welcomes these commitments that acknowledge the vital role of data access and smaller companies for the Digital Decade, as well as the role of digital technologies in the green transition.
Ministers signed the following declarations:
- A Green and Digital Transformation of the EU
- Start-up Nations Standard
- European Data Gateways
In addition, several DIGITALEUROPE members became signatories to the Green Digital Coalition, which we support as a facilitating partner.
Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl said:
“Let today be the first day of the Digital Decade! We very much welcome these declarations by European Ministers. Firstly, they send an important and strong signal recognising the tremendous role of digital technologies in achieving environmental and climate goals. And secondly, they lay out concrete measures to help support the next generation of European unicorns.
In our recent Scaling in Europe report, we saw that scale-ups need adaptable regulations, more investment and better access to talent, amongst others, so today’s declaration is welcome. As well as national measures to facilitate start-up and scale-up growth, to reach the Commission’s target of doubling the number of Europe’s unicorns by 2030 we also stress the need for a Europe-wide e-administration portal and data spaces.
According to a study by Gesi, digital technologies can cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2030. However, in order to truly accelerate the twin transition and boost the uptake of technologies, we also see the need and importance of having standardised, credible and comparable assessment methodologies for the impact of green digital solutions on the environment.”
A Green and Digital Transformation of the EU
DIGITALEUROPE supports Member States’ commitment to accelerate the development and deployment of digital technologies such as 5G, cloud solutions, AI and big data as key solutions.
Digital technologies are key enablers for sectors like energy, transport, construction, agriculture and manufacturing to reduce their CO2 emissions. The Recovery and Resilience Facility offers an unprecedented opportunity to unleash the full potential of the twin transition to support the mutually reinforcing green (at least 37% of funding) and digital transitions (at least 20% of funding).
European Green Digital Coalition
DIGITALEUROPE also welcomes the launch of the European Green Digital Coalition with the Declaration signed by CEOs. The Coalition aims to promote cross-sectoral dialogue and invest in the development and deployment of green digital solutions with significant energy and material efficiency that achieve a net positive impact in a wide range of sectors.
It also aims to develop ensuring consistent and comparable assessment methods (calculators, metrics, KPIs) to measure ICT as an enabler.
Start-up nations standard
We support the aims of this declaration to make Europe the most attractive and scale-up continent. The initiative will focus on making it easier for entrepreneurs to start businesses and grow and expand across borders. It asks the signatories to create the conditions for young companies to succeed, with measures such as streamlining visas and boosting access to finance.
We are pleased to see that the majority of the recommendations from our Scaling in Europe report have been covered in the declaration.
