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Young people from all over Europe are showing a growing appetite for coding activities, robotics and computational thinking, as the record participation in EU Code Week clearly reveals. The number of people taking part has grown from 10,000 to 2.7 million in just six years. The 2019 edition will take place from 5 to 20 October.

The European Commission published the first reports submitted by signatories of the Code of Practice against disinformation signed in October 2018. While the Commission welcomes the progress made, it also calls on signatories to intensify their efforts in the run up to the 2019 EU elections.

The European Commission has launched an annual scoreboard to monitor women's participation in the digital economy, on the occasion of the birthday of Ada Lovelace, considered as the world's first computer programmer. The Women in Digital scoreboard is one of the actions to assess women's inclusion in digital jobs, careers and entrepreneurship initiated by Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. The Scoreboard assesses EU countries' performance in the areas of internet use and internet user skills, as well as specialist skills and employment, based on 13 indicators.

Commissioner Mariya Gabriel presented the 2018 European Digital Skills Awards to five extraordinary projects which are helping improve Europeans’ digital skills.

At the Telecoms Council of 4 December, the EU ministers adopted a partial general approach on the Digital Europe Programme. Building on the Digital Single Market strategy, launched in May 2015, and its achievements over the past years, the European Commission proposed in June 2018 to create the first ever Digital Europe Programme and invest €9.2 billion in tomorrow's digital technologies as part of the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027.

EU Code Week starts on 6 October with over 12,000 activities taking place in more than 45 countries. The EU Code Week is a yearly grass-roots movement supported by the European Commission as part of its strategy for a Digital Single Market, that promotes programming and wider tech knowledge, this year with a special focus on schools. More than a million people are expected to participate in the interactive events, including children, parents and teachers. This year, the initiative calls especially on teachers to try out coding and 'tech' related activities in their classroom.

Between December 2016 and July 2018, members of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition offered 10.9 million Europeans a chance to improve their digital skills. In total, 7.4 million digital skills trainings were provided, 1.9 million certifications were delivered and 1.6 million people were reached through awareness-raising campaigns. Moreover, 23 National Coalitions are now working on the ground, promoting digital skills policies and actions.

The European Commission wants to put the spotlight on projects which contribute to the development of digital skills in Europe.
The Awards will be presented by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society on 6 December 2018. The Awards are a great opportunity for nominees to showcase their projects, as the winners and four runners up in each category will be invited to exhibit their project at the ICT 2018 conference in Vienna as a reward.
The final deadline for the submission of projects is 24 October 2018.

From 6 to 21 October, "EU Code Week" will again help make digital skills and innovation come to life for citizens across Europe and beyond. This year schools of all levels and teachers of all subjects are especially invited to participate. Teachers are encouraged to give their students a first look into the world of programming and "tech" and to inspire them by incorporating hand-on on-line and off-line activities in their classrooms.

The European Commission is proposing to create the first ever Digital Europe programme and invest €9.2 billion to align the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027 with increasing digital challenges.