The Digitisation Agenda in EU Europe

Digital Agenda for Europe (http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en)

The Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) aims to reboot Europe's economy and help Europe's citizens and businesses to get the most out of digital technologies. It is the first of seven flagships initiatives under Europe 2020, the EU's strategy to deliver smart sustainable and inclusive growth.

The digital economy is growing at seven times the rate of the rest of the economy.

The Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) aims to help Europe's citizens and businesses to get the most out of digital technologies. It is the first of seven flagships initiatives under Europe 2020, the EU's strategy to deliver smart sustainable and inclusive growth. Launched in May 2010, the DAE contains 101 actions, grouped around seven priority areas.

The review of the Digital Priorities, published on 18th December 2012, identifies 7 key areas for further efforts to stimulate the conditions to create growth and jobs in Europe:

1. Create a new and stable broadband regulatory environment.
2. New public digital service infrastructures through Connecting Europe Facility loans
3. Launch Grand Coalition on Digital Skills and Jobs
4. Propose EU cyber-security strategy and Directive
5. Update EU's Copyright Framework
6. Accelerate cloud computing through public sector buying power
7. Launch new electronics industrial strategy – an "Airbus of Chips"

The full implementation of the updated Digital Agenda would increase the European GDP by 5%, or 1500€ per person, over the next eight years, by increasing investment in ICT, improving eSkills levels in the labour force, enabling public sector innovation, and reforming the framework conditions for the internet economy. In terms of jobs, up to 900.000 digital jobs risk going unfilled by 2020 without pan-European action while 1.2 million jobs could be created through infrastructure construction. This would rise to 3.8 million new jobs throughout the economy in the long term.

More specific project information can be found here:

 ICT Policy Projects for Cultural Heritage (http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/ict-policy-projects-cultural-heritage)

Europeana Libraries project (http://www.europeana-libraries.eu) is a Best Practice Network to bring Europe's libraries together to aggregate content and deliver services.  It's being led by TEL, working with CERL, LIBER and Europeana.