Letter to EU ministers: Here is how to invest in digital to reboot Europe's economy

Ahead of tomorrow’s European Council, DIGITALEUROPE and 21 of its national associations have written to national governments across the bloc laying out the 10 cross-continental priorities in our digital investment plan.

In October, DIGITALEUROPE published How to spend it: A digital investment plan for Europe. Building upon our five broad priorities outlined in June, we put forward 10 investment ideas that will make Europe more competitive and innovative, greener, and more resilient.

Underpinning these pan-European priorities are 35 project case studies from our members across the EU.

Announced in President von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech and endorsed by European leaders, 20 per cent of the new € 750 billion post-COVID-19 recovery and resilience funding must be spent on digital investments.

Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl said:

“The 20 per cent target shows a clear wish from President von der Leyen to make these next ten years Europe’s ‘digital decade’. She has shown a profound understanding of the need for investment to create a stronger and more inclusive digital Europe. Now the ball is in the court of the national governments. We already see impressive leadership from some countries like Spain, but we aim to bring along all European Member States and leave no one behind.

The digital sector has experience in delivering projects to create growth and jobs, and we are here to help. Our investment plan and its 10 priorities serve as an inspiration for how to spend the Recovery Fund. We hope to see all the 27 Member States moving in the same direction. We need to get the digital transformation right and we cannot afford more fragmentation in our home market if companies in Europe are to be able to scale-up and compete internationally.”

The participating national trade associations:

• AFNUM – France
• AGEFE – Portugal
• AGORIA – Belgium
• ANIS – Romania
• Anitec-Assinform – Italy
• APSI – Luxembourg
• CITEA – Cyprus
• GZS Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Slovenia – Slovenia
• INFOBALT – Lithuania
• Internetoffensive Österreich – Austria
• IVSZ – Hungary
• KIGEIT – Poland
• NLdigital – The Netherlands
• PIIT – Poland
• SEPE – Greece
• Syntec Numérique – France
• TECH IN France – France
• Technology Industries of Finland – Finland
• Technology Ireland – Ireland
• Teknikföretagen – Sweden
• ZVEI – Germany

The 10 investment ideas

You can read the full paper on our website here.

Digital education, skills and inclusion

1.    A European digital upskilling and reskilling programme

2.    Bringing schools into the digital age

3.    Using artificial intelligence to predict the jobs of the future

Digital healthcare

4.    Modernising and securing the EU’s health systems

5.    Harnessing health data to benefit patients and speed up research

Digitising SMEs and scale-ups

6.    Boosting SME growth and cross-border trade through a Europe-wide e-Administration portal

7.    Unlocking open public data to empower scale-ups

Digital transformation, innovation and the Green Deal

8.    A digital ‘Renovation Wave’ and a modernised construction sector

Connectivity and infrastructure

9.    Bridging the urban–rural digital divide

10.  Boosting growth of traditional sectors through 5G connectivity