The EU Digital Europe Programme (2021-2027) is part of the Multiannual Financial Framework and focuses on building the strategic digital capacities of the EU and on facilitating the wide deployment of digital technologies. The aim is to shape and support the digital transformation of Europe’s society and economy; to achieve this the programme disposes of a €9.2 billion budget and targets a total of five areas, namely supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society.

Within the context of the exponential developments in the digital sphere, one of the goals is to increase Europe’s competitiveness in the global digital economy and increase its digital autonomy, as the EU been slower than competing regions in investing in the uptake of latest technologies including world-class infrastructures. This will thus constitute a decisive factor for creating the Europe of tomorrow.  

To achieve this  the plan is to overcome the fragmentation of investments, the lack of advanced digital skills and the slow pace of adoption of innovative digital solutions by public administrations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Programme is set to be launched by 2021. Therefore, to ensure a successful start of the Programme, targeted consultations are being carried out (by means of the survey below) to gather stakeholders’ views on the key areas, elements and priorities for the first two years of the EU Digital Europe programme.

Targeted audience for the survey: public authorities (especially at local level), industry (especially SMEs), but also any citizen who feels involved in the digital transformation.

Link to survey: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/DEP_targeted_consultation