The digital agenda for Europe is a plan from the European Commission and which is one of its seven key objectives for Europe for 2020.
The digital agenda itself is built on seven pillars. One of the key objectives of the digital agenda is the delivery of economic and societal benefits based on ultra-fast broadband access.
The first pillar is achieving the Digital Single Market. The EC recognises that the internet doesn’t stop at the boarder. Building a digital single market means providing infrastructure for digital entertainment delivery, payments platforms and requires a level of collaboration that is so far not been achieved. It will require agreements on data privacy, data security and collaboration between national and international telecoms infrastructure players and internet players under an agreed regulatory framework. The digital agenda will seek to update single market rules for the digital era.
The second aspect of the digital agenda is setting standards for data storage, applications and networks and rules for intellectual property protection.
Cybercrime, child pornography and personal data security are key to the digital agenda and the EC says ‘we need to know the rules of the game are the same in all 28 countries of the EU.
The agenda calls for secure networks on which simulated cyber attacks are carried out.
To deliver the digital agenda requires ultra fast internet access for all 500m EU citizens. This needs to be competitively priced.
Technology doesn’t stop. Continued investment in research and innovation is needed to to boost growth and jobs via Public-Private Partnerships and by exploiting the opportunities available through Horizon 2020 research funding programs. ‘We must catch up with our main competitors in ICT research and digital innovation.’
Education is key to the digital agenda with digital literacy a key requirement. The EU risks falling behind its global competitors and is already facing a skills crisis in digital technologies. For the digital agenda to have any hope of success parts of the population which are still excluded from media literacy must be included and this must be addressed by government s and businesses. The benefits of the a successful digital agenda include e-health and telemedicine, intelligent transport and smart cities and economic growth for the region.
