The EU Council reached a landmark deal. Now Europe's digital goals must be backed up with spending plans

On 21 July, the European Council Summit reached a landmark agreement on the EU Recovery Fund and the long-term budget. DIGITALEUROPE welcomes the agreed instruments providing immediate resources for European citizens and businesses to face the crisis, and urges Member States to back up Europe’s digital goals with adequate spending plans.

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, said:

“We are very pleased to see that European leaders have come together and found a historic deal at this time of need.

Now it’s up to the Member States to understand that a truly digital & green Europe needs investment in research and new technologies – and back this up with adequate spending plans.

To this end, we call on European leaders to earmark at least 15% across all MFF programmes as well as their national spending from the Recovery package to digital transformation, in order to achieve our green goals and to boost the competitiveness of the European industry.

The cuts to the Digital Europe Programme and to Horizon Europe will have a serious impact on Europe’s capacity for innovation. We urge the European Parliament to step up and invest in Europe’s future, by scaling up funds dedicated to research, skills, and infrastructure.”