New Report on State of the Digital Decade Released by Commission
The European Commission has published the second report on the State of the Digital Decade, assessing the progress toward the 2030 digital objectives set by the Digital Decade Policy Programme (DDPP). This year’s report includes an analysis of national Digital Decade strategic roadmaps, highlighting the planned measures, actions, and funding by Member States. However, the analysis reveals that collective efforts fall short of the EU’s ambitions, particularly in areas such as digital skills, connectivity, AI adoption, and semiconductor production. Enhanced cooperation between the EU and Member States is crucial to address these gaps.
The report underscores the importance of adopting innovative technologies to maintain Europe’s competitiveness, especially given the current geopolitical landscape and cybersecurity threats. Despite some progress, the EU lags in achieving connectivity targets, with fibre networks reaching only 64% of households and high-quality 5G networks covering just 50% of the EU’s territory. The uptake of AI, cloud, and big data by companies is also below target, with only 64% of businesses expected to use cloud services, 50% big data, and 17% AI by 2030. Increased private investment in digital tools and startups is essential to bridge these gaps.
The digital skills gap remains a significant challenge, with only 55.6% of the EU population possessing basic digital skills. To meet the targets, Member States need to adopt a multi-faceted approach to foster digital skills at all educational levels and encourage interest in STEM disciplines, particularly among girls. Progress is being made in digital public services, with eID available to 93% of the population, but achieving 100% digital public services by 2030 is still challenging.
Member States must review and adjust their national roadmaps by December 2024 to align with the DDPP’s ambitions. The Commission will continue to monitor and assess the implementation of these recommendations, reporting progress in the next State of the Digital Decade report in 2025. Significant EU funding has been allocated to support this digital transformation, including EUR 150 billion from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, EUR 7.9 billion from DIGITAL Europe, and EUR 1.7 billion from the Connecting Europe Facility 2 Digital.
Source: Press corner
