The annual European Commision report on the State of the Digital Decade provides an analysis on the progress of the EU on the objectives and targets of the Digital Decade Policy Programme for 2030. The 2024 State of the Digital Decade report clearly states that urgent and coordinated action is needed to speed up progress in order to meet the Digital Decade goals. The report explores the EU’s digital transformation progress across 4 key areas: digital infrastructure, digital skills, digitalisation of public services, and digitalisation of businesses.
First, the report examines digital infrastructure and businesses and their contribution to building a competitive, sovereign, and resilient Europe. In terms of digital infrastructure, the report highlights the need for Member States to put into place actions to promote the adoption of gigabit by end-users, and as part of their connectivity, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategies, support the deployment of secure and sustainable edge nodes. Currently, only 1,186 of the targeted 10,000 edge nodes have been deployed.
The report identifies that progress of the adoption of AI and data analytics by busieness has been slower than expected. While the Digital Decade aims to have 75% of entreprises adopting Artificial Intelligence by 2030, only 11% of businesses have currently implemented this. As a result, the report urges Member States to support SMEs in the take-up of digital tools (in particular cloud, data analytics, and AI), and to diversify the ecosystem of start-up investments in order to speed up the digital transformation for businesses.
Then, the report then looks at digital skills and public services. Currently in Europe, only 69% of people have basic digital skills, and only 9.8 million people are employed as ICT specialists. The Digital Decade aims to have 80% of individuals with basic digital skills and 20 million ICT specialists by 2030. To address the current digital skills gap, Member States should prioritise investments in digital education and skills, with a special focus on early STEM exposure for young people, particularly girls, and promote lifelong ICT learning. While the EU is closer to achieving its goals on digital public services for citizens and businesses, there is still a significant gap to close. The report also emphasises the need for Member States to develop practical use cases to facilitate the use of the EU digital identity wallet for both users and service providers. Additionally, it is essential to take investment and regulatory measures to ensure secure, interoperable, and accessible digital public services for everyone, including older people and people with disabilities.
A closer look at the Member States: National Strategic Roadmaps
This is the first year that the State of the Digital Decade report also evaluates the National Digital Decade Strategic Roadmaps adopted by the Member States in 2023. The European Commission has produced country-specific fact pages that examine the progress made towards the Digital Decade goals. Each fact page provides strengths and areas of progress as well as weaknesses and areas for improvement. In this context, a strategic roadmap and country-specific recommendations are provided. In addition to the country-specific recommendation, the Commission has recommended that all Member States take action in the areas of: connectivity infrastructure, cybersecurity, sutainability, cloud-edge solutions, and roadmaps (implementation of the Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles). In response to this, Member States have until December 2024 to review and adjust their national roadmaps.
Source: European Digital Skills & Jobs Platform
