The EC has issued a wake-up call to Member States, with many not currently making sufficient progress to meet key 2030 connectivity targets
Despite interventions at the EU level, progress being made by national governments is not at the required rate
On 2 July 2024, the EC published the second annual report on the State of the Digital Decade, providing an overview of progress made towards achieving the objectives and targets set for 2030 by the Digital Decade policy programme (DDPP). First proposed in September 2021, the DDPP outlines a number of goals for the EU across four categories: digital infrastructure; digital transformation of businesses; digital skills; and digital public services. However, despite significant interventions at the EU level (for example, the introduction of new legislation and the provision of new funding), Member States are not projected to meet some targets by the agreed deadline. In addition, the report points to considerable fragmentation in the progress made by Member States. Most of the concerns within the report are familiar and have been highlighted by the EC in its digital infrastructure white paper, as well as reflected in recent regulatory efforts to drive the expansion of, and investment in, telecoms networks, such as the Gigabit Infrastructure Act and the Gigabit Recommendation. The industry is, however, still anticipating action in the form of a Digital Networks Act under the new Commission, with key asks of greater spectrum harmonisation, a levelling of the regulatory playing field between the tech and telecoms sectors, and support for in-market consolidation.
Member States are particularly behind the targets for digital skills, connectivity, semiconductors, enterprise digitisation and startups
The EC’s analysis identifies areas in particular need of additional investments, both at EU and national levels:
Digital skills: Only 55.6% of EU’s population has at least basic digital skills and, according to current trends, the number of ICT specialists will reach just 12m by 2030 – well below the 20m target and amid growing competition for talent;
High-quality connectivity: 64% of households have access to fibre, with the annual growth rate below that needed to hit the gigabit target by 2030. 5G networks today reach 50% of the EU's territory and their performance is still insufficient to deliver advanced 5G services;
Adoption of technology by enterprises: It is expected that 64% of businesses will use cloud, 50% big data and 17% AI by 2030, against a DDPP targets of 75%;
Semiconductor production: EU revenues declined by 3% year-on-year (although global revenues decreased by 14%, indicating a relatively greater resilience in the EU market); and
Startup ecosystems: The digitisation of SMEs is progressing too slowly and unevenly across the EU, with the growth rate half that required to achieve the target.
Only 52% of the EU’s targets for the DDPP are reflected in national roadmaps
The report is accompanied by an analysis of the national Digital Decade strategic roadmaps presented by Member States, detailing the planned measures, actions and funding to contribute to the EU's digital transformation. Together, Member States have proposed more than 1,600 measures aimed at achieving the Digital Decade targets and objectives, leveraging €168m (£142.0m) from the public budget. These measures focus mainly on semiconductors (€40bn (£33.8bn), 24% of public funding), connectivity (€29bn (£24.5bn), 17%), and basic digital skills (€25bn (£21.1bn), 15%). The roadmaps also contain national targets; however, in only half of cases are they aligned with EU targets. The EC states that the level of ambition shown by Member States matches the EU’s Digital Decade in some instances, for example basic digital skills, VHCNs and “basic 5G”, while being much lower in others, such as FTTP and businesses’ adoption of cloud and AI. Substantial improvements and adjustments of the national roadmaps are therefore needed to align them with the aims of the DDPP, with all EU targets reflected in Member States’ own strategies and translated into more ambitious measures and policies.
The EC has outlined six key recommendations to accelerate progress and will be monitoring how well they are adopted
Given the work still to be done, the EC has outlined several cross-cutting recommendations for Member States to follow, which revolve around the following pillars:
Implementing and enforcing regulatory frameworks (e.g. the DMA, DSA and AI Act), with coordination between the EU and national governments to minimise the administrative burden;
Intensifying efforts to strengthen competitiveness, as reflected by productivity, resilience, ‘greening’ and sovereignty;
Fostering the dissemination of digital technologies across society and regions, particularly through collaboration between European actors at the local level;
Supporting a ‘smart green transition’, growing small-scale pilots into large-scale projects based on cooperation between the public and private sectors;
Ensuring people and their rights are at the centre of the digital transformation, monitoring the societal and economic risks that could arise in the process;
Sharing best practices, particularly regarding the advancement of digital skills, adoption of advanced digital technologies, especially AI, and monitoring of the environmental footprint of digital technologies.
The EC will monitor and assess the implementation of these recommendations and report on the progress made in the next iteration of the report, in 2025. Meanwhile, Member States now have five months (until 2 December 2024) to consider and adjust their national roadmaps to align with the ambition of the DDPP, which itself will be reviewed in June 2026.
