The European Parliament's Committee on Industry (ITRE) was due to adopt the partial interim agreement concluded a month and a half ago between Parliament, the EU Council and the Commission on the Digital Europe programme for the period 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12194/35) on the evening of Monday 25 March. At the time this edition went to print, the results of the vote were still not known, although there was little room for doubt.
This agreement identifies five specific interrelated priorities: high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills and access modalities. Compared to the Commission's initial proposal, it suggests a new mode of governance: it specifies that the objectives related to high-performance computing and cybersecurity must be managed indirectly, i.e. via the Joint Undertaking for High-Performance Computing, via the European Centre for Cybersecurity Industrial, Technological and Research Competence and via the Network of National Coordination Centres in the field of cybersecurity. The other objectives – artificial intelligence, digital skills and access arrangements – must be managed directly, through the procedure of implementing acts (comitology), the text states. To this end, it provides for the Commission to be assisted by a coordination committee for the Digital Europe programme (Article 27a).
The programme, with a total budget of €9.194 billion at current prices, is open to European Free Trade Association members from the European Economic Area, while the partial or total association of other non-Member States is subject to a case-by-case assessment. Some entities – based in the EU, but controlled by non-Member States – may be excluded from funding related to high-performance computing or artificial intelligence for security reasons.
At Parliament's request, the text instructs each Member State to identify, in 2021, at least one digital innovation pole in order to constitute an initial network at European level.
The text of the consolidated partial agreement can be found at: https://bit.ly/2U2IbW8. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)