Commission invests in digital future of European industry
The Commission i today launched a package of measures that will help European industry, SMEs, researchers and public authorities to take full advantage of new digital technologies.
"The industrial revolution of our time is digital," said Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market. "We need the right scale for technologies such as cloud computing, data-driven science and the internet of things to reach their full potential. As companies aim to scale up across the Single Market, public e-services should also meet today's needs: be digital, open and cross-border by design. The EU is the right scale for the digital times." Commissioner Oettinger underlined that "Europe will only be able to maintain its leading role if the digitisation of its industry is successful and reached fast". Commissioner Bieńkowska added that the digital economy merges with the real economy and that leadership and investment in digital technologies are needed in areas like advanced manufacturing, smart energy, automated driving or e-health.
Today's measures will, among others, support and connect national initiatives to digitise industry, boost investment through strategic partnerships and strongly encourage the use of the opportunities offered by the EU Investment Plan and European Structural and Investment Funds. In total, they should mobilise more than €50 billion of public and private investment, including €500 million for a European network of digital innovation hubs where businesses can get advice and test digital innovations.
The Commission wants to encourage common standards in 5G communications networks and cybersecurity to boost digital innovation and allow safe and seamless communication among billions of connected devices.
Today's e-government action plan aims to modernise digital public services and make the EU a better place to live, work and invest.
A new European cloud will give Europe's 1.7 million researchers and 70 million science and technology professionals a virtual environment to store, manage, analyse and re-use vast amounts of research data.
Today's package is the first part of the EU's Digital Single Market strategy to focus on the needs of industry. It follows a first set of proposals on copyright and digital contracts (December 2015) and a draft decision on spectrum coordination (February 2016). The Digital Single Market strategy includes 16 initiatives to be presented by the end of this year.