Digital Decade - Policy programme

The digital world can bring about countless opportunities: think of the possibility of working from home, paying bills remotely or voting online. However, it also presents our societies with important challenges, such as the digital divide, cybersecurity threats and disinformation, just to name a few. By setting common targets and objectives, as well as by establishing a strategic framework of collaboration between the EU Member States and the Commission, the Digital Decade policy programme (DDPP) aims to address both the opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation.

To make the most out of online services, for instance, the programme envisions a significant increase in the digitalisation of public services, such as eHealth and eGovernment. To ensure no one is left behind, the programme sets important targets on basic digital skills and on access to connectivity. To address the risks associated to cybersecurity, the Digital Decade prioritises the need to make critical infrastructures more secure through enhanced EU collaboration. By harnessing digital technologies, and addressing their associated risks, the Digital Decade Policy Programme guides and gives direction to the EU’s digital transformation over the next decade. 

The Digital Decade policy programme is the first ever digital strategy commonly agreed by the European Commission, Parliament and Council. It is a strategic initiative that outlines a vision for Europe’s digital transformation until 2030, sets out concrete targets and objectives and provides a governance framework and mechanisms for collaboration, both between the Commission and Member States and among Member States. 

Targets and objectives

The Digital Decade Programme focuses on four cardinal points, under which the Digital Decade targets fall:

1. A digitally skilled population and highly skilled digital professionals
2. Secure and sustainable digital infrastructures
3. Digital transformation of businesses
4. Digitalisation of public services

Alongside the targets, the programme also sets several objectives to ensure the digital transformation respects EU values and benefits all EU citizens, by:

• Building a safe and secure digital world
• Providing public services online
• Ensuring everyone can participate in digital opportunities
• Ensuring all organisations adopt cybersecurity measures
• Ensuring small businesses and industry can access data and adopt digital technologies (including cloud, data analytics and Artificial Intelligence)
• Ensuring SMEs can compete in the digital world on fair terms
• Promoting the deployment of innovative infrastructures
• Promoting research focused on measuring the impact of digital technologies, and developing sustainable, energy and resource efficient innovations

Monitoring progress 

The Digital Decade policy programme 2030 set up a framework to track progress towards the 2030 targets and objectives, both at national and EU level. Within this framework, the Commission and Member States work together to assess progress and make adjustments to ensure that the EU stays on track to meet its goals. 

The monitoring process comprises different elements:

• Key performance indicators (KPIs) measure the progress achieved towards the Digital Decade targets. KPIs were established in the 2023 implementing act and are based on the preexisting DESI exercise, which measured the state of the digital transformation in Europe each year. The DESI visualisation tool provides an overview of the state of play for each of these KPIs.
• EU-level trajectories describe the theoretical path of progression of each KPI value to its 2030 target value. As such, trajectories serve as a basis to monitor the progress observed for each target and assess whether it is sufficient to reach the 2030 values.

• Each year, since 2023, the Commission publishes the Decade report, in which it measures and assesses the progress towards the Digital Decade targets and objectives, and compares the values observed for the KPIs set for each target against the projected values along the Digital Decade trajectories. Recommendations for further actions and efforts are also issued, where needed. 

  The first State of the Digital Decade report was published in 2023 and the second one in 2024.

• Following the publication of the first report, each Member State defined its own national roadmap to reach the common EU trajectories and targets. In the second State of the Digital Decade report, the Commission published an assessment (.pdf) of national roadmaps, with recommendations to address existing gaps. Every two years, Member States update their national roadmaps by reviewing and adjusting planned actions, measures, and investments, taking into account the Commission’s recommendations.