The European Commission recently released its second report on the State of the Digital Decade, which concluded member states will fall short of the ambitious digital transformation goals outlined in the EC’s original Digital Decade program.
Important targets the new report says member states have missed include connectivity via fiber networks and the implementation of 5G. The Digital Decade had also hoped 75 percent of businesses would have implemented AI, cloud and/or big data by 2030. At current rates of uptake, the report estimates only 64 percent of businesses will use cloud, 50 percent will utilize advanced data and analytics and 17 percent will be leveraging AI by 2030.
The Commission gave member states of the European Union a deadline of December 2, 2024 to review and adjust their national roadmaps to align with the Digital Decade Policy Program. As set out in the DDPP, the Commission will monitor and assess the implementation of these recommendations and report on any progress made in its next report update in 2025.
“Today’s report clearly shows that we are not on track to reach our targets on the digital transformation in Europe,” said Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age. “But it also indicates a clear way forward: we need additional investments in digital skills, high-quality connectivity, and uptake of Artificial Intelligence. We need to incentivise the use of digital tools. We need many more people to get digital skills—both basic and expert level—to leverage our strengths. And we need to foster cooperation and better integrate our single market to really enable the digital transformation across Europe.”
