The 2021 results show encouraging progress, but also the need to do more if the EC’s 2030 targets are to be met
Gigabit connectivity is improving, but some countries lag far behind: Last week, the European Commission released the latest version of its DESI index, which measures and compares the performance of countries in the EU across several areas of digital competitiveness. Overall, the data show significant progress in the coverage of fixed Very-High Capacity Networks (VHCN) i.e. gigabit-capable broadband. 59.3% of households now have access to it, compared to 49.7% the previous year. However, this seemingly encouraging progress should not overshadow the difficulties that will arise in pursuing the target of universal gigabit coverage by 2030. While Germany has upped its game in 2020 compared to 2019 (55.9% coverage vs. 32.7%), Italy has seen very little growth and sits at 33.7% (only about 4 percentage points higher than 2019), while Greece is still stuck at 10%. Rural coverage of VHCN has increased from 22% to 28%, but is still far from where it needs to be to meet the 2030 connectivity targets.
The lack of digital skills could mean Europe misses out on the benefits of AI: The new report confirms Europe’s struggle to improve digital skills among its population. 56% of Europeans have at least basic digital skills, and 31.1% have “above basic” skills. These two figures are unchanged from the previous year. There has been a slight increase in ICT specialists in employment (from 7.8m to 8.4m), but 55% of businesses are still reporting difficulties in recruiting ICT specialists. The objectives to have at least 80% of the EU population with basic digital skills and 20m ICT specialists by 2030 will require a significant step change. It is therefore no wonder that the EC’s AI strategy places so much emphasis on skilling up the European workforce, without which reaping the benefits of AI will be difficult.
Is the DESI report an accurate representation of the EU’s reality? The DESI index is widely used as a credible benchmark for Europe’s progress in digitisation, but it clearly doesn’t capture an up-to-date picture since it uses data from H1 2020. This means that at time of publication it is already outdated by more than a year – and this particular set of results fails to capture the impact of COVID-19, which the EC says will be more visible in 2022. Due to the economic slowdown during the pandemic, it is likely that the 2022 report will show limited progress on 2021, and will further highlight Europe’s need to accelerate.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_5481
