On Friday 3 December, the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU will present the state of play of its work on the way forward for the digital decade to the Telecommunications Ministers of the EU Member States. The Commission presented its proposal on 15 September, aiming to ensure that the EU achieves its digital transformation goals (see EUROPE 12791/14).
The Commission’s proposal is based, in part, on increased collaboration, via an annual cooperation mechanism, between the Member States and the Commission.
However, several Member States, during discussions on 16 November at a meeting of the Telecommunications and Information Society Group, expressed doubts as to whether the objectives could be achieved, given the existing digital divide between the various EU countries.
“The level of ambition was considered too high or too low, depending on the objectives considered”, the Slovenian Council Presidency summarised in a document published after the discussions.
Similarly, some Member States have been critical of the obligations and sanctions for delays or failure to meet the targets. Others felt that clarification was needed on these matters.
In addition, the issue of the administrative burden for small and medium-sized enterprises is also expected to be discussed by the ministers on 3 December.
As a reminder, the Commission’s proposal on the way forward for the Digital Decade aims for 80% of the EU population to have basic digital skills and 20 million “highly skilled” digital professionals to be active.
The deployment of the cloud and sustainable digital infrastructure as well as the digital transformation of businesses and the digitalisation of public services are also part of the objectives. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)