The election results are in, and despite a far-right surge, it turns out, the center can hold. Europe’s leaders now have five years to build the continent’s ‘Digital Decade’. Europe’s large countries, the bloc’s traditional leaders, are digital laggards. Germany is only waking up to agree on a digital agenda. The French are fast tech adopters but face an electoral crisis. Italy says little, belying its industrial heritage. And the UK is gone. It is up to the continent’s digital savvy, small nations to take the lead. D9+, you’re up.
The Digital Nine (D9+) is a group of 12 EU member states. These ‘digital frontrunners’ form a modern Hanseatic league centered around the Benelux, Nordic, and Baltic countries. Created in 2016 by Sweden, the D9+ original members gave themselves a mission to provide tech leadership. They are pro-tech, but not anti-regulation. They applaud efforts to build a genuine single European digital market. They promote digitized public services.
The low-profile D9+ could never be accused of hogging the spotlight. That needs to change. In the wake of this month’s elections, a short window is opening to influence the EU’s digital agenda. Here are some proposed priorities:
Pick Pro-tech Commissioners
Member States will now choose new Commissioners. D9+ members should push for ‘pro-tech, but not anti-regulation’ choices. A functioning single digital market should be the priority. It has been talked about for long enough. French Commissioner Thierry Breton, who has adopted an aggressive and confrontational approach to any tech that is not European, needs to return to Paris.
Abandon Digital Sovereignty
La Souveraineté Numérique, a French-inspired protectionist tech agenda, is already on the wane. It has always been an impractical proposition in an interconnected world. Time to put it to sleep. Europe is playing catch-up on cloud computing, artificial intelligence, chips, and quantum. The EU will not help European companies to close the gap by shutting doors to American and Asian suppliers. Collaboration with like-minded democracies on data sharing, on funding, and on agreed standards is required. A public rejection of digital sovereignty needs to happen fast as an even more protectionist administration may soon take charge in Washington, DC.
Impose a Regulatory Pause
The D9+ should push for an ‘implementation only’ approach on tech regulation. Over the past few years, Europe has imposed a broad new set of digital rules. The Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act are bedding in, and the AI Act has been passed. Europe does not need more ‘grandstand’ tech rules. It needs a consistent approach to implementation, according to the EU’s own report. Give companies, European and otherwise, coded-in compliance.
Assess the Impact of EU Rules
Although many EU technology rules target ‘very large’, mostly American, technology firms, the rules can impact European businesses negatively. Quality impact assessments are required. The results should inform recommendations for removing or streamlining ineffective regulations.
Lead on Digital Adoption
D9+ members should continue racing ahead to digitize public services. Cloud adoption rates remain too low. Governments should speed smart use of AI to save money and find efficiencies. There are also strong stories to tell. Estonia leads on e-government, Denmark makes intelligent use of public data. Finland provides smart start-up support. The D9+ should share these stories and learn from each other.
Double Down on the Digital Decade
Europe has set ambitious targets for giving its citizens access to broadband and digitizing public services and private companies. The pace of progress on these Digital Decade goals is far too slow. The US is spending on chips, on green tech, and recommending additional funds for AI. At the same time, some €500 billion of the EU’s Covid Recovery Fund remains unspent. A pan-European capital market for start-ups and scale-ups is overdue — and, again, an influential recent report on European competitiveness recommends utilizing European money to spur European growth.
The D9+ must make the next five years about boosting European competitiveness. This idea enjoys broad support. Europe’s economy needs a jolt of energy and deeper digitalization can be the catalyst. It is time for the D9+ to come out of its shell, make some noise, and lead.
Ronan Murphy is Director of the Digital Innovation Initiative at the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Boosting Europe’s Digital Leaders: A New Momentum for the D9+
The D9+ should become a voice against protectionism and a positive messenger for an open digital economy, pushing Europe to meet its ambitious goals for the Digital Decade.
Bandwidth is CEPA’s online journal dedicated to advancing transatlantic cooperation on tech policy. All opinions expressed on Bandwidth are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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