Position paper - Towards a digitalised Single Market (2019 - 2024)

With a new EU legislative term approaching, shaping the EU’s digital future is more important than ever. That’s why this position paper outlines our recommendations for the next EU digital agenda. The EU can foster a competitive European digital economy which benefits everyone by focusing on:

• Better regulation: Policy and regulatory frameworks in the EU should aim to foster investment in digital technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship, while adequately protecting citizens and users from possible risks.
• Emerging technologies: Europe should boost the development and make the most of new emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G and enable their integration in sectors like mobility and health.
• Investment, innovation and entrepreneurship: The successful digitalisation of the economy and society will depend on factors such as incentives for research and development (R&D), lifelong learning programmes for employees and the ability of businesses to scale-up and to protect their investments.
• Trust: For all businesses, governments and people to reap the full benefits of digital technologies, they need to be trusted by their users. Multi-stakeholder dialogues and strong public-private partnerships are needed to tackle complex challenges such as ethics in AI and cybersecurity in IoT.
• International cooperation: Governments need to cooperate to ensure free flow of data, the scale-up of start-ups and technologies at global level and to effectively address challenges such as cybersecurity.