The European Parliament supports the five priorities and the €9.2 billion budget of the future Digital Europe Programme for the period from 2021 to 2027. This is what emerged from a vote in plenary session on Thursday 13 December, which generated a large majority of support.
Inter-institutional negotiations will therefore be able to start with the Council, which adopted its position at the beginning of December (see EUROPE 12152).
Compared to the initial proposal, MEPs slightly increased the programme's priorities, which cover high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills and modalities for access respectively. In the field of artificial intelligence, for example, they stressed that projects should be human-centred and that "actions that were not ethically acceptable or did not meet the conditions should not be eligible for funding".
They also clarified the accessibility conditions of the programme: in their view, the mechanism should be open to European Free Trade Association countries that are members of the European Economic Area. The others should be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The text also suggests a case-by-case assessment of legal entities established in a non-member State.
A final change should be pointed out which requires each Member State to identify, in 2021, at least one digital innovation hub in order to create an initial network on a European level. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)