The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, took the opportunity of the State of the Union speech on Wednesday 15 September in Strasbourg to revisit the EU’s digital objectives, which are at the heart of the priorities of her mandate.
“Digital is the make-or-break issue”, said Mrs von der Leyen, recalling at the same time that, among other things, artificial intelligence, digital identity, and the laws on digital services and markets (DSA-DMA) (see EUROPE 12790/3) remain at the heart of the debate.
“I am glad that Mrs von der Leyen has made the Digital Single Market and digital skills one of the top priorities. We just cannot allow a few gatekeepers to dictate the rules. Europe has to emphasise democratic principles in the digital world as well. This is why the DSA and DMA must protect fundamental rights in the digital world and bring control over data and information back into the users’ hands“, reacted Marcel Kolaja (Greens/EFA, Czech Republic).
This is in line with the Renew Europe group, which also stressed in a statement the need to “safeguard freedom of expression” and “avoid creating disproportionate burdens for small online marketplaces”.
Digital education and training
In addition to the DSA, the DMA, the path forward for the digital decade (see other news), and the ambitions for semiconductors (see other news), the European Commission also plans to put the improvement of digital skills education at the centre of its work.
Thus, it wishes to put forward a long-term vision to make digital education more inclusive and accessible while strengthening cooperation at European level.
This will involve improving education and providing infrastructure for resilient distance learning, in line with lessons learned from the health crisis.
Finally, on another front, the European Commission also announced that it would be looking into multimodal digital mobility services.
“Mrs von der Leyen said that digital is the key to success or disruption, and it’s true. Digitalisation is crucial for society”, said Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Denmark), rapporteur on the DSA.
See the State of the Union address: https://bit.ly/3ltHxvq
See the European Commission’s letter of intent for 2022: https://bit.ly/3AgLd9Z (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)