Digitalisation was very much in the forefront of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Treaty of Rome on Thursday 23 March. As part of the celebrations, the European Commission provided an update on the European interoperability framework, whilst European ministers also made a commitment to supporting connected and autonomous mobility, high-performance computer power and the digital transformation of business.
During this event, Vice President Andrus Ansip, stated that, “For more than 60 years, European countries have been working together to ensure that the economic benefits related to market expansion and integration are put into practice and benefit citizens. This should also be the case for the digital environment”.
In Rome, he presented a communication on interoperability, as well as an action plan defining the priorities based on implementation of the European interoperability framework for 2016-20. The new framework provides a total of 47 recommendations that are more focused on the opening up and management of information, data portability, the governance of interoperability and presentation of integrated services. See: https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif.
The Commission also launched a platform on the digital transformation of businesses as part of different national initiatives. It announced that there would be a pilot project for developing digital skills on internships. See: http://bit.ly/2nNmbxW.
At the same time, European ministers, with the exception of the British minister, adopted a letter of intent, to establish, together with the Commission, a legal framework for cross-border connected driving trials based on harmonised data access rules, responsibility and connectivity. The document is also signed by Norway and Switzerland and calls for concrete action to be identified by September 2017 . See: http://bit.ly/2nV0ski.
Seven ministers (France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) also supported a declaration seeking to make Europe into a world actor in the area of high-performance computer power. See: http://bit.ly/2nW0A2X. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)