The European Commission is proposing a €9.2 billion envelope to relaunch Europe in the digital race. This is what the European Commission suggested in a new proposal for post-2020 EU spending, presented on 6 June.
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, said “We have concentrated on investment in strategic capacity. Currently, there are sectors in which Europe remains a leader such as robotics and micro-nanotechnologies. We have identified five key areas where investment is needed”. According to the Commissioner, the payment commitments do not seek to replace existing programmes but to help complete them and create synergies between them.
The Commission proposal focuses on 2021-2027 and highlights five key areas where Europe can make the difference: high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and advanced digital skills and ensuring their wide use.
5 strategic areas
Overall, supercomputers, artificial intelligence and cyber security will benefit the most from the new programme.
The Commission has earmarked €2.7 billion to fund projects to build-up and strengthen supercomputing and data processing in Europe. This funding will help roll out infrastructure with exascale capabilities (a billion billion or 1018 calculations per second) by 2022/2023, and post exascale facilities by 2026/2027.
The Commission explains that the aim is “to endow the EU with its own independent and competitive technology supply, achieving excellence in applications and widening supercomputing availability and use”.
The European Commission has proposed €2.5 billion to help spread artificial intelligence (AI) across the EU. This budget will be offered to the public authorities and businesses, especially the smallest ones, so that they have better access to AI testing and experimentation facilities in Member States.
The Commission is also proposing, for example, to develop common 'European libraries' of algorithms and make available common areas for artificial intelligence in digital innovation poles to all stakeholders.
Finally, the Commission has earmarked €2 billion for the cybersecurity industry. For all other areas: €700 million will be raised to respond to digital skill requirements (through long-and short-term training courses and on-the-job traineeships, regardless of their Member State of residence and targeted programmes for civil servants). €1.3 billion will ensure the digital transformation of public administration and public services and their EU-wide interoperability.
This proposal was presented at the same time as another proposal on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which is seeking to earmark €3 billion to ensure access to the high-speed connections of the future (see other article). [https://bit.ly/2M0gHIN ] (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)