At their virtual meeting on Friday 26 March, the Heads of State or Government of the Member States are expected to discuss the EU’s digital priorities for the next decade, stressing the importance of digital sovereignty.
“On digital issues, we want to strengthen our ambition”, says the President of the European Council in his letter of invitation to the EU27. “We aim to strike the right balance between building our digital sovereignty and maintaining an open economy, while ensuring that no one is left behind”, he continues.
A draft conclusion dated 15 March stresses that the European Union must strengthen its digital sovereignty in a self-determined and open manner by building on its strengths and reducing its strategic weaknesses.
It also calls on the European Commission to make its Digital Compass a reality by proposing, as it promised, a digital policy agenda by the end of the summer (see EUROPE 12674/13). This programme, the draft text continues, should identify strategic digital capacities and infrastructures, ensuring a more developed policy approach towards them.
It should be noted that the Netherlands and Spain have co-signed a working document on strategic autonomy, in which they call for support for the development of quantum communication infrastructures or for stimulating investment in Artificial Intelligence and robotics.
Speaking in the European Parliament, European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič stressed that the Commission would present proposals on Artificial Intelligence, a European digital identity and the single market for data later this year.
Link to the draft conclusions: http://bit.ly/3vywOE9 (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)