Commission sets out path to digitise European industry

The European Commission has proposed concrete measures to speed up the development of common standards in priority areas, such as 5G communication networks or cybersecurity, and to modernise public services.

As part of the plans, the Commission will set up a European cloud that, as a first objective, will give Europe’s 1.7 million researchers and 70 million science and technology professionals a virtual environment to store, manage, analyse and re-use a big amount of research data (press release).

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, said: “The industrial revolution of our time is digital. We need the right scale for technologies such as cloud computing, data-driven science and the internet of things to reach their full potential. As companies aim to scale up across the Single Market, public e-services should also meet today’s needs: be digital, open and cross-border by design. The EU is the right scale for the digital times.”

While many parts of the economy have been quick to take up digital technologies and processes, European industry across sectors and regardless of a company’s size must fully use digital opportunities if it is to be globally competitive.

Traditional sectors (like construction, agro-food, textiles or steel) and SMEs are particularly lagging behind in their digital transformation. Recent studies estimate that digitisation of products and services will add more than €110 billion of revenue for industry per year in Europe in the next five years.

Several EU Member States have already launched strategies to support the digitisation of industry. But a comprehensive approach at European level is needed to avoid fragmented markets and to reap the benefits of digital evolutions such as the internet of things.

As part of this approach, the Commission will:

• help coordinate national and regional initiatives on digitising industry by maintaining a continuous EU-wide dialogue with all actors involved. A governance framework will be set up with Member States and industry.
• focus investments in EU’s public-private partnerships and strongly encourage the use of the opportunities offered by the EU Investment Plan and European Structural and Investment Funds.
• invest €500 million in a pan-EU network of digital innovation hubs (centres of excellence in technology) where businesses can obtain advice and test digital innovations.
• set up large-scale pilot projects to strengthen internet of things, advanced manufacturing and technologies in smart cities and homes, connected cars or mobile health services.
• adopt future-proof legislation that will support the free flow of data and clarify ownership of data generated by sensors and smart devices. The Commission will also review rules on safety and liability of autonomous systems.
• present an EU skills agenda that will help give people the skills needed for jobs in the digital age.

The European cloud initiative (press release) also forms part of this package and will help Europe lead in the data-driven economy.

Overall, the plans should mobilise over €50 billion of public and private investments in support of the digitisation of industry.