The European Commission has announced a number of vital new digital declarations, and announced additional commitments to collaboration in key innovation sectors.
A number of vital new digital declarations demonstrate the EU’s ambitions to support innovative technologies which will facilitate the development of the digital single market. This will also encourage broader collaboration between EU member states on research and development.
The four areas that the commission identified as being vital to Europe’s future are:
- Artificial intelligence;
- Blockchain;
- eHealth; and
- Innovation.
In addition to vital new digital declarations, the commission also launched the ‘Innovation Radar’, an online platform which allows Europeans to access a database of all of the innovations and startups supported by EU funding.
The platform will not only celebrate the history of European-funded innovation, but will allow people working in emerging sectors to connect with others working on similar projects, to encourage collaboration and accelerate development.
What will the EU’s new declaration’s achieve?
In a speech opening the event, European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip said that Europe is already a world leader in the development of AI technology; however, he also warned that the commitments made on Digital Day would ensure that Europe keeps this position, in the face of efforts by China and other countries to develop their own AI innovations.
25 European member states signed the declaration on co-operating in development of artificial intelligence. This will help to harmonise research and aims to remove regulatory barriers, to prevent efforts being repeated.
13 European countries have signed an additional commitment to linking genomic databases across country borders, which will harmonise health research and clinical practice across the bloc.
What did the commission say about Digital Day?
In a joint statement, Ansip, along with fellow Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioners Günther Oettinger, Vytenis Andriukaitis, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Carlos Moedas and Mariya Gabriel, said that the Digital Day 2018 event represented a strong signal of member states’ desire to make Europe a world leader in developing – and benefitting from – these new technologies.
However, the joint statement also warns that these commitments must be translated into actions, and the commissioners highlight the additional steps that stakeholders across Europe need to take to drive innovation.
They said: “We need to accelerate our efforts: key proposals, from the free flow of non-personal data to better connectivity, still need to be agreed by the European Parliament and member states. They are essential for the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence. Europe also needs to invest more in digital, research and innovation.”
