News & Views

Today at the EU Digital Day 24 EU Member States and Iceland signed the declaration on Startups Nations Standard of Excellence, to support startups across Europe in each stage of their development.

26 CEOs of companies have signed a Declaration to support the Green and Digital Transformation of the EU.

24 Member States and Norway and Iceland have signed a declaration to accelerate the use of green digital technologies for the benefit of the environment. They will deploy and invest more green digital technologies to achieve climate neutrality and accelerate the green and digital transitions in priority sectors in Europe, for example by using the NextGenerationEU and InvestEU funds.

At Digital Day 2021, 25 Member States, as well as Iceland and Norway, committed to reinforcing internet connectivity between Europe and its partners in Africa, Asia, the European neighbourhood, the Western Balkans and Latin America, by signing the Declaration on “European Data Gateways as a key element of the EU’s Digital Decade”.

Today the European Commission is proposing to create a Digital Green Certificate to facilitate safe free movement inside the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Digital Green Certificate will be a proof that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result or recovered from COVID-19. It will be available, free of charge, in digital or paper format.

The European Commission welcomes the agreement reached by the European Parliament and the Council on the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) proposal, worth €33.7 billion, as part of the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027.

This week the Commission presented a vision, targets and avenues for a successful digital transformation of Europe by 2030. This is also critical to achieve the transition towards a climate neutral, circular and resilient economy. The EU's ambition is to be digitally sovereign in an open and interconnected world, and to pursue digital policies that empower people and businesses to seize a human centred, sustainable and more prosperous digital future. This includes addressing vulnerabilities and dependencies as well as accelerating investment.

The European Commission’s Digital Single Market social media channels are rebranded into DigitalEU, remaining the go-to account for the latest on EU digital policies.

Two EU-supported films received awards at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival that took place online last week: the Silver Bear for Best Director went to Dénes Nagy for ‘Natural Light' (Természetes fény) and the Special Jury Award in Encounters went to ‘Taste' (Vị), by Lê Bảo. Nine EU-supported films and series were nominated for awards.

The Commission announced the beneficiaries of several calls for proposals which will produce and disseminate across Europe media content on European topics. Cross-border consortia operating in full editorial independence will offer innovative and attractive formats in several languages covering European affairs, as well as initiatives with specific emphasis on young Europeans.