Digital Europe Programme: let’s democratise digitalisation

“Europe’s micro, small and medium-sized businesses must have the possibility to use supercomputers to do data analytics and exploit the full potential of Artificial Intelligence. This is how businesses become innovative and provide a more useful service to us, the citizens”, said Pilar del Castillo MEP, EPP Group Spokeswoman on the Digital Europe Programme.

Today, the European Parliament will approve the first funding programme for Digital Europe, which is a novelty. It is intended to make digital technology much more accessible to businesses and citizens alike.

“Now that we have the first true Digital European Programme, we must make sure that it is implemented fast so that European companies, especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises make good use of it, as Europe gets back on its feet after the pandemic”, stated del Castillo.

Digital Europe will primarily focus on high-performance computing, Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity and advanced digital skills. Above all, it ensures their wide use and accessibility across the board, be it for the economy, society, businesses or the public sector.

Pilar del Castillo underlined the importance of Artificial Intelligence and the potential of supercomputers. “We mustn’t forget that currently, the use of supercomputers is very expensive and is mainly found in third countries. This in itself makes the case for proper EU funding for supercomputers based in Europe”, she concluded.