Brussels, 08/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Digital Forum, a reflection group on the European digital economy that was set up at the beginning of the year with the encouragement of the European Commission (see EUROPE 110033), has published an open letter to the candidates for the presidency of the European Commission, asking them to accord the necessary importance to the digital economy. “The next European Commission president needs to be a digital president”, state the European digital champions responsible for advising the Commission on digital issues. “As individuals operating at the leading edge of innovation and technology, we are eager to learn more about your digital strategies and encourage you to start developing them at an early stage”, the letter's signatories state. European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes applauded the initiative - both on her blog and on Twitter.
The digital champions encourage the candidates to include in their election campaign a clear and ambitious agenda in favour of the digital economy. This agenda should be based on four fundamental principles: (1) the digital economy does not exist - it is the whole economy that has become digital. In other words, the digital portfolio involves all the dossiers that the future president will have to manage and the president will have to take account of it in decisions so as not to hinder the expansion of digital technologies; (2) there can be no convincing strategy for growth and jobs without a significant increase in performance in the digital sector. ICT and the internet contributed to over 20% of world economic growth between 2004 and 2009, and this sector is due to grow seven times more quickly than global GDP in coming years. Furthermore, Europe lacks competence in this area, which is why the digital champions also call on the future president to continue and to build on the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs. Launched in March 2013, the Grand Coalition's objective is to engage in common action for training additional professionals in the ICT sector; (3) a competitive and dynamic economy must be based on digital technologies. However, Europe lacks infrastructure. Around €2 billion would be needed by 2020 in order to catch up, the digital champions assert, underlining that further delay would be catastrophic for the future of digital Europe; (4) start-up companies must be better supported and the Commission president candidates are asked to incorporate recommendations for the Start-up Manifesto (see EUROPE 10913) in their programme.
Jean-Claude Juncker from Luxembourg, the EPP's candidate to succeed European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and one of the favourites, has acknowledged the open letter, saying that a single digital market is one of the five priorities in his election campaign. “I intend to make use of these arguments in the weeks to come when I will continue to advocate for a strongly digitally-oriented European Commission”, said Juncker. The other favourite, S&D candidate Martin Schulz from Germany, underlined the importance of the digital economy on Twitter: “We must invest in digital infrastructure so we can develop the digital market, to create European jobs”, the tweeted. (IL)