The Digital Decade initiative in Europe was created with the vision that digital technology benefits all citizens in the European Union (EU). Proposed in 2021, it set a series of 2030 targets designed to empower citizens and help businesses prosper. However, a new report suggests that current progress may be insufficient to meet these targets.
The latest instalment of the State of the Digital Decade report identifies crucial gaps, including the need for more investment, at both EU and national levels.
It calls for member states to be more ambitious – stating that achieving many of the Digital Decade goals is critical for Europe’s future economic prosperity and societal cohesion.
The Digital Decade policy programme set out ambitions in four areas, aiming to create: a digitally skilled population and highly trained digital professionals; secure and sustainable digital infrastructures; digital transformation of businesses; and digitalization of public services.
The new report finds that member states are collectively lagging. Key areas requiring additional investment and focus include digital skills, high-quality connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), and business adoption of data analytics.
Digital skills targets are “still far from being achieved”, with only 55.6% of the EU population having at least basic digital skills. Fibre networks needed for people to use cutting-edge technology, including AI and cloud computing, only reach 64% of households, while high-quality 5G only reaches 50% of EU territory.
The uptake of AI falls far short of the target of reaching 75% of businesses by 2030 – at current rates, just 17% of European companies will be using it by the end of the decade.
The report calls on member states to review and adjust their roadmaps to align with the programme’s ambition.
As the State of the Digital Decade paper states, such initiatives are vital to realizing the benefits of technology for people, the planet and prosperity. Digital transformation is expected to unlock trillions of dollars of additional value for the world economy.
But many of the gaps identified by the EU report persist around the globe.
Today, 2.6 billion people are disconnected from the digital economy, according to the World Economic Forum report Digital Transition Framework: An action plan for public-private collaboration. For example, over a third of the world’s population remains offline despite 95% being within range of some form of connectivity. The digital skills gap remains a key barrier to digital inclusion and opportunity.
Two-thirds of jobs, meanwhile, are exposed to some degree of automation, yet just 5% of companies have invested in significant AI reskilling. And the benefits of AI remain geographically concentrated, primarily in the Global North.
is tackling the limited spread of digital technologies beyond large cities.