Community Launch Event: Digital Decade presentation & Futurium discussion

Good morning,

I confirm that the event will take place from 1-2:30pm CET.

Many thanks for noticing and kind regards,

Lavinia

Dear Anelia,

Monitoring in the Digital Decade will be mainly done via DESI (Article 5(1) of the proposed Decision). The DESI 2021 structure has already been aligned to reflect the four cardinal points of the Digital Compass and the related targets for 2030, replacing the previous five-dimension structure. 11 DESI 2021 indicators measure the progress made towards reaching some of the Digital Compass targets.

Going forward, DESI will be further aligned with the Digital Compass to ensure that all targets are discussed in the reports. DESI will therefore give the picture of the state of digitalisation in Europe, including by measuring the overall progress towards the EU level digital targets for 2030, as well as the underlying trends at national level.

Other important elements for monitoring progress are the projected trajectories foreseen under Article 5(3) of the proposed Decision – the trends that the indicators measuring the progress towards the EU level targets should follow in view of reaching the targets in 2030, as well as on the commitments taken by the Member States, including the national trajectories, in their national strategic roadmaps (Article 7).

Based on DESI, on the EU level projected trajectories, and on the national commitments related to each target, the Digital Decade Report will illustrate, via a traffic lights system, whether the EU is on good track towards reaching the targets and make corresponding recommendations. 

Measuring the implementation of digital principles may not necessarily be as quantitative as other targets and therefore not subject to the same monitoring tools. However, it should also be assessed by the Commission and discussed with Member States. Moreover, an annual Eurobarometer exercise will be launched following the adoption of the Declaration of Digital Principles for an EU Digital Citizenship. The Eurobarometer will be specifically dedicated to monitoring the perception of Europeans regarding the respect of the principles enshrined in the Declaration and to what extent EU citizens feel that the digitalisation of our society is serving them. Finally, as mentioned in the policy proposal, the annual State of the Digital Decade Report will include digital principles in its scope.

Best regards

Dear Antoni,

Thank you for addressing us with your question.

The European Commission has been supporting the digitalisation of Health and Care Systems for over a decade with its Policy and R&I actions.

The latest comprehensive Policy Strategy on the matter has been adopted with the Communication on Enabling the digital transformation of Health and Care in the Digital Single Market (2018).

Building on that, the Commission has also adopted a Recommendation on a European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format (2019), which indeed refers to HL7 (annexe). Various services of the Commission are currently working jointly to create the European Health Data Space, for which a legislative proposal is expected in early 2022.

If you have any additional questions, please contact unit CNECT/H3: eHealth, Wellbeing and Ageing: CNECT-H3@ec.europa.eu .

Kind regards,

Anna

Dear Gerrit,

Multi-Country Projects are large-scale projects for the achievement of the digital transformation of the Union and industrial recovery targets. They will pool EU, national, and private resources and bring together Member States to achieve progress that no Member State could do on its own. Public support to the Multi-Country Projects should be used notably to address market failures or sub-optimal investment situations, in compliance with applicable Union law and national law consistent with Union law.

An IPCEI is one of the instruments to implement an MCP. IPCEI is a State aid instrument initiated by the joint efforts of several Member States and their public budget funding (in addition to significant private investments) to support ambitious, highly innovative cross-border collaborative projects that contribute significantly to the EU objectives and the internal market, in a way compatible with the current State aid rules. As such, it is the prerogative of Member States to design and notify such large cross-border and ambitious projects to the Commission. As a State aid instrument, it requires approval on their funding in a way compatible with the relevant State aid rules for IPCEIs. Preparations are under way for some of the Multi-Country Projects to use this instrument. These include for example two potential IPCEIs, namely, the IPCEI on the Next Generation Cloud Infrastructure and Services, or the IPCEI on Microelectronics and Communication Technologies.

Eligibility criteria of entities, in particular as regards participation of entities established in third countries and entities based in the EU but controlled from third countries, are defined in Work Programmes of DEP, Horizon Europe and of the Joint Undertakings.

Best regards,

Anna

Dear Alexandre,

Multi-country projects are implemented via various instruments, such as IPCEIs, Joint Undertakings, DEP calls. There are calls in the first DEP work programme, there will be calls in the JUs’ Work Programmes to be adopted soon. Some topics in Horizon Europe Cluster 4 Work Programme also relate to some of the MCPs.

A list of areas of activity that might be covered by Multi-country project is presented in the Annex to the Commission Decision '2030 Path to the Digital Decade' (COM(2021)/574).

Best regards

Anna

Dear Caroline,

On your first question: According to Article 5(1) of the proposed Decision, the Digital Decade targets will be translated into key performance indicators (KPIs), to be adopted by the Commission, following consultation of the Member States, via an implementing act and building on DESI work.

The definitions of these KPIs must be on the one hand broad enough to avoid too many changes, which could be the case given the dynamics of digital transformation, but also precise enough to allow for consistent measurements across Member States and over time. In other words, in order to ensure comparability between Member States and consistent time series for an indicator, it is necessary that changes are applied by all Member States in the same manner and kept to the minimum level needed to reflect the dynamics of digital transformation.

Note also that there is a revision clause for the targets, by 2026, foreseen under Art 4(2) of the proposed Decision. 

On your second question: Data collection in DESI is based mostly and whenever possible on Eurostat work. Currently, the majority of the DESI indicators are measured via Eurostat surveys. In DESI 2021, of the 11 indicators that reflect the Digital Decade targets, six are fed by Eurostat data. 

However, for reasons related to the duration of Eurostat data collection process, as well as to the methodology of Eurostat surveys, not all topics that are relevant for the monitoring of the digitalisation in EU markets can be covered in these surveys. Therefore, studies are necessary to complement the data that cannot be sourced via Eurostat. Member States are fully consulted and involved in these studies, too.

Best regards.

Dear William,

The Digital Compass Communication as well as the 2030 Policy Programme “Path to the Digital Decade” have been prepared and adopted in close cooperation with all Directorate Generals of the Commission, including among others, environment, energy, clima but also employment and economic affairs, to name a few of them. This coordination will continue during the negotiation of the co-legislative process with the Council and European Parliament. Once adopted, the State of the Digital Decade report will present, every year, an overall assessment of the progress of digitalization across sectors, including those mentioned above. The assessment and resulting proposals for action will also involve experts from the above mentioned Directorate Generals, as relevant.

Best regards

Dear Gudrun,

The DIGITAL programme foresees the creation of a Language Data Space, the main objective of which is to deploy a data space for the collection, creation, sharing and reuse of multimodal language data. This will support the deployment of large multimodal language models and a wide range of AI language technologies services to be offered through the AI platform.

This data space draws on the European Data Spaces Technical Framework. It will also have to coordinate and collaborate with other projects participating in the deployment of the data space and the Data Spaces Support Centre in order to allow integration of existing standards and to ensure interoperability and portability across infrastructure, applications and data. Best regards,Language Technologies team

Dear Frederik,

We refer you to the analysis made in the Staff Working Document accompanying the “Path to the Digital Decade” proposal. MCPs are simply large-scale projects involving several Member States and implemented via various instruments (e.g. JU, DIGITAL projects, IPCEI) according to the nature of the projects.

Where such projects are ongoing or being set up with existing instruments, there is nothing new nor change in the course of action. Where projects lack an appropriate implementation instrument, the new instrument - EDIC - will be envisaged.

Best regards,

Anna

Dear Alexandre,

Financial contributions are expected from Member States taking part in an MCP, therefore this usually implies the involvement of ministries.

It is also possible for public and/or private entities in a given Member State to be part of consortia involved in a MCP.

Best regards,

Anna

Dear Aleksander,

The “Path to the Digital Decade” is a policy programme, while Horizon Europe is a funding programme. It is currently not envisaged to create additional missions as an instrument in the policy programme – but we welcome any concrete ideas in this regard.

The “Path to the Digital Decade” proposes a new cooperation and coordination mechanism to set up and implement Multi-Country Projects (MCPs). MCPs are large-scale projects that pool EU, national, and private resources to achieve the digital transformation of the Union at scale. A new instrument – the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) – will promote the fast and efficient implementation of MCPs for which existing instruments are not suitable.As an entity with a legal personality, an EDIC can apply for a Union grant by submitting itself the proposal for a call or by invitation from the granting body. The policy programme will not affect the rules of existing funding programmers nor modify existing rules on the combination of funds.

Best wishes,

Clara

Dear Aleksander,

I will check this after the webinar and will get back to you ASAP.

Best,

Lavinia