Digital Europe programme 2021–2027

2018/0227(COD)

The European Parliament adopted by 491 votes to 38, with 51 abstentions, amendments to the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Digital Europe programme for the period 2021-2027.

The issue was referred back to the committee for interinstitutional negotiations.

The main amendments adopted in plenary concern the following points:

Objective

This aim of this proposed Regulation is to establish the first Digital Europe programme, which shall be implemented for the period of 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2027.

The general objective shall:

- seek to support and to accelerate the digital transformation of the European economy, industry and society and to bring its benefits to European citizens, public services and businesses;

- reinforce the strategic autonomy and cohesion of the Union while securing competitiveness and reducing the digital divide.

A central role in the implementation of the Programme should be attributed to European Digital Innovation Hubs, which should stimulate the broad adoption of advanced digital technologies by industry including SMEs , by public organisations and academia.

Members have stated that European Digital Innovation Hubs shall act as one-stop-shops where companies - especially SMEs, start-ups and mid-caps – can get help to improve their business, production processes, products and services by means of digital technology that could result in added value.

Budget

The financial envelope for the implementation of the Programme for the period 2021-2027 shall be EUR 8.2 billion in 2018 prices (compared to EUR 9.2 billion as proposed by the Commission).

Specific objectives

The Programme shall be structured into five specific objectives reflecting key policy areas, namely:

- high-performance computing (Objective 1) with a budget up to EUR 2.4 billion;

- artificial intelligence (Objective 2)  with a budget up to EUR 2.2 billion;

- cybersecurity (Objective 3) with a budget up to EUR 1.8 billion;

- advanced digital skills (Objective 4) with a budget up to EUR 623 million;

- deployment, best use of digital capacities and interoperability (Objective 6) with a budget up to EUR 1.1 million.

Implementation

The actions under specific objective 1 shall be primarily implemented through the Joint Undertaking proposed by the Commission and endorsed by the Council of Ministers on 25 of June 2018.

The actions under specific objective 2 shall be implemented exclusively through direct management by the Commission or an executive agency on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis. They shall comply with ethical principles and relevant national, Union and international laws, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention of Human Rights and the Protocol thereto.

The actions under objective 3 shall be primarily implemented through the European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre and the Cybersecurity Competence Network.

The actions under Objectives 4 and 5 shall be mainly implemented through direct management by the European Commission.

For all these areas, the Programme shall also aim at better aligning Union, Member States and regional policies, and pooling of private and industrial resources in order to increase investment and develop stronger synergies.

The Commission shall ensure that when leveraging the complementary character of the programme with other European funding programmes, in particular ESIF, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Horizon Europe and Connecting Europe Facility (CEF-2), investEU, Erasmus, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) the achievement of Specific objectives are not hampered.