2030 policy programme ‘Path to the Digital Decade’: the Council adopts its position

To ensure that the EU meets its objectives for a digital transformation in line with EU values, member states today agreed on a negotiating mandate for the 2030 policy programme ‘Path to the Digital Decade’.

This text aims to strengthen the EU’s digital leadership by promoting inclusive and sustainable digital policies that serve citizens and businesses.

To this end, it sets out the concrete digital targets, including for industry which the Union as a whole must achieve by the end of the decade and a novel form of governance with the member states, through a mechanism of cooperation between the Commission and the member states to ensure that the Union jointly achieves its ambition.

Governance

The Council text changed the frequency of interactions to move to a biennial cycle of cooperation between member states and the Commission while maintaining the annual frequency of the ‘State of the Digital Decade’ report. In this regard, a stronger link with the legal basis of the decision has been established.

Alignment with other digital files

The Council text is fully in line with the Commission Communication of March 2021 on the 2030 Digital Compass and underlines the importance of fundamental rights.

Next steps

Mandate was approved on 11 May 2022 by the Council’s Permanent Representative’s Committee (Coreper), so the Council presidency can start negotiations with the European Parliament as soon as the European Parliament has agreed its position.