Czech Business Today
First achievements of the Czech Presidency – Digital compass preliminary agreement
The Czech Republic can rejoice in the first success of our Presidency by reaching a preliminary agreement on the policy program Digital compass: the European way for the Digital Decade 2030. This program will bring the European Union a bit closer to a modern, competitive, digitized, prosperous and educated society and make life easier for citizens in particular.
The Digital Decade is a program that addresses the overall digital transformation within the European Union. It aims to strengthen the leadership of the EU and its individual countries in this sphere, including by having countries work together to evaluate their multi-annual strategic plans and by supporting shared projects in areas such as AI and cybersecurity.
The program also targets the education of citizens, with the aim that by 2030 up to 80% of citizens will have at least basic digital skills and be able to meet the increasing demands for competitiveness and digital competence. Another goal is 5G network coverage, whereby by the end of the decade, European households should be covered by a gigabit network and have 100% of their online availability of the essential public services to save time when interacting with authorities. Cloud services are also among the targets, with up to 750 businesses expected to be connected and actively using the service.
The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) is assessed and published by the Commission in an annual report to measure the level of digital performance across countries. The agreement is currently pending approval by the Council and the European Parliament, and the Czech Presidency intends to submit the agreement to COREPER for its approval as soon as possible.
