Compiled from the net Eng. Anelia Dimova, Information Society Policy Expert
On 17 March 2026 the European Commission organized its annual strategic workshop on the digital decade online. Brussels wants to link the review of European digital targets to competitiveness and sovereignty and particularly to the next multiannual financial framework. What merits attention is that the Union is beginning to treat digital policy not as an isolated sector, but as a component of its economic, industrial and geopolitical security.
The 2025 report on the state of the digital decade had showed that the Union is making progress in certain areas, such as basic 5G coverage and the deployment of edge nodes, but that it still remains far from its targets on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, standalone 5G and digital skills. The Commission had also recalled that the national roadmaps already represent €288.6 billion in measures, while still judging this effort insufficient in view of the scale of Europe’s delay.
The digital decade framework rests on four pillars: connectivity, digital skills, the digitalisation of businesses and that of public services. It provides for annual monitoring by the Commission and coordination between the Union and the Member States. But this mechanism, as it stands, shows its limits insofar as it does not transform stated objectives quickly enough into industrial, technological and human capabilities.
European digital competitiveness is not decided solely in the production of rules. It is decided in the ability to finance infrastructure, support industrial adoption, diffuse AI throughout the productive fabric and train the workforce. That is precisely why the Commission is linking this workshop to the future European budget. In its proposal for the 2028-2034 financial framework, it presents a budget of €2 trillion over seven years, of which €409 billion is dedicated to competitiveness in the global economy.
The programme for digital sovereignty places cloud infrastructure, quantum, defence-related digital technologies and space-based digital systems at the centre. For a long time, European digital policy was dominated by the logic of the internal market, by competition and by the regulation of platforms. Though these dimensions remain decisive they are no longer sufficient. The geopolitical shock, dependence on non-European cloud, competition over semiconductors, the irruption of generative AI and the rise of civil-military uses are imposing a change of doctrine and approach. The digital decade must also be judged by the control of value chains, technological resilience and European autonomy of decision.
Politically this workshop raised the question whether the Union wanted to continue measuring its delay, or finally it wanted to identify its intolerable dependencies and concentrate its resources on a few decisive capabilities. There are too many objectives on the European agenda, too many instruments and too many national compromises which hamper Europe to move forward at a higher speed.
The workshop united three debates that Brussels had too often treated separately so far: the assessment of progress, technological sovereignty and long-term financing. The year 2026 will show whether the revision of the digital decade enables the Union to move beyond administrative monitoring and enter into a genuine policy of power.