Digital Agenda: European Commission outlines action plan

The European Commission has today (May 19) unveiled the much-awaited Digital Agenda for Europe, an action plan aimed at contributing significantly to economic growth in the EU and boosting access among users.

The agenda outlines seven priorities:
- creating a digital Single Market,
- greater interoperability,
- boosting Internet trust and security,
- much faster internet access,
- more investment in R&D,
- enhancing digital literacy skills and inclusion, and
- applying ICTs to address challenges like climate change and the ageing population.

The agenda is quite ambitious with seven priorities and 16 key actions (full list is found in the annex, here). As the communication itself states, the challenge is in implementing all this: “The toughest challenge is to ensure rapid adoption and implementation of these measures necessary to meet our objectives. We need a shared determination and a common vision to achieve this step change for Europe.”

The Digital Agenda builds upon, apart from previous documents/communications, the European Parliament’s Resolution on 2015.eu of May 5 (of which I had summarised the main highlights here), and the Granada Ministerial Declaration of April 19 resulting from the informal meeting of EU telecoms ministers.

Read about the key initiatives of the Digital Agenda here (the initiatives are explained in an easy-to-follow summary; the two Annexes on key actions and targets are also well-explained in the link). The full text of the Communication is available here. Press release is available here.

Image shows the (inner circle) seven most significant obstacles, identified by the European Commission, which undermine efforts to exploit ICTs. To overcome these obstacles, the potential of ICTs can be mobilised through (outer circle) a “well-functioning virtuous cycle of activity”. Source: A Digital Agenda for Europe, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, May 19, 2010