ARTICLE16 December 2022

Industry’s message to the most-digitalised EU member states

The EU’s most-digitalised member states are meeting in Gran Canaria on Friday. The business sector hopes to see initiatives to strengthen the digital single market and enhance international cooperation with like-minded countries.

Photo: Michael Probst

Ministers from the 12 most-digitally advanced EU member states are meeting in Gran Canaria on Friday. The theme of the meeting is long-term recovery and economic growth by building a trusted, sustainable, and inclusive digital future.

Ahead of the event, the business organisations of Business 9+, B9+, are calling for improved digital cooperation. The main message to the D9+ countries is to prioritise the actions needed to strengthen the digital single market and encourage deeper digital integration with like-minded partners internationally. The B9+ wants to see an outward-looking, dynamic, and successful EU, one that encourages technological capabilities across the Union while remaining open to international trade and cooperation.

As voices in Europe highlight the need for technological sovereignty and strategic autonomy, it becomes increasingly important that the D9+ actively work to promote digital openness and trade. A business environment that is geared towards innovation, competitiveness and trade will allow companies to better adapt to technological and environmental changes.

B9+ highlights the need to intensify the deployment of digital infrastructure in areas such as broadband, optical fibre, cloud and 5G. At the same time, it is necessary to promote the development of new technologies such as 6G, 3D internet with virtual worlds and extended reality, XR.

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise and the colleagues within B9+ also believe that Europe needs to develop policies that promote sustainable market structures, a dynamic internet ecosystem capable of driving the demand for, and investments in, high-speed connectivity, increased availability of spectrum for electronic communications services and investment in digital infrastructure. Such digital infrastructure should primarily be delivered through market-driven deployment; there should only be public intervention when the market forces fail.

On 5G cybersecurity, B9+ stresses the importance of managing security risks and the resilience of key operations using a risk-based approach based on international standards and OECD recommendations. Policy efforts need to continue to promote a competitive market, the diversity of suppliers in Europe, based on generally accepted security standards and assessment mechanisms for telecommunication within the EU and industry, such as the EU’s 5G certification scheme.

The shape of Europe’s digital future is vitally important. The business sector needs to digitally mature and have access to an open, secure, and reliable innovation friendly digital environment. It will result in sustainable businesses, high-quality jobs, and an improved quality of life for the citizens. A foundation for this is a high-capacity digital infrastructure capable of coping with the increasing traffic to meet the customers demand and the technological development.

The Swedish representative at the Digital 9+ meeting in Gran Canaria is Director General Dan Sjöblom, Post and Telecom Authority.

Read B9+ Joint Statement to the EU D9+ Ministerial meeting in Las Palmas below.

D9+

The D9+ is a ministerial group, representing the twelve most-digitally advanced EU member states. The group was formed in 2016 following an initiative from Sweden. The members are Sweden, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
  The national business organisations in the D9+ countries call themselves Business 9+ and work together to support efforts towards a digital and green transformation.

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Publisher and editor-in-chief Anna Dalqvist