Digital transformation will play a key role under Germany’s Presidency of the EU Council – both as an essential pillar of the EU recovery plan in light of the COVID-19 pandemic but also as a critical subject of future regulation.
On the one hand, digital transformation was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic putting the spotlight on its vital opportunities and benefits for Healthcare and Mobile Working. But even without a direct impact to COVID-19 some sectors were developing rapidly – like finance, manufacturing, education and particularly transport, energy, mobility where major investments are now planned to boost the European economy. The pandemic also confirmed to many European policymakers the need to pave the way for European digital sovereignty and competitiveness.
On the other hand, shaping and regulating digital transformation was already at the top of Europe’s agenda prior the pandemic, driven by the achievements and ambitious digital plans presented by the European Commission in February 2020. This concerns data ownership, data availability and security but also the EU’s data infrastructure ecosystem, platform economy as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Corporate Digital Responsibility - all cumulating into efforts to position Europe as an innovative digitally sovereign location.
In the snapshot below, we outline the key priorities and initiatives in digital policy that Berlin will be driving in the next six months. Additionally, we provide a visual overview of the main digital-related meetings and events.
If you are interested in how the digital priorities of the German Presidency may affect your organization, then get in touch.
