Three Pillars for Europe’s Tech Competitiveness

Following the publication of the Draghi Report, one message is loud and clear: Europe must write ‘competitiveness’ in golden letters. It is urgent to boost our ability to compete globally in the tech sector, building upon three decisive pillars: repowering digital innovation, strengthening the digital infrastructure, and tackling the digital skills shortage.

The competitiveness gap between the EU and other regions like the US is largely explained by the lack of innovation in the tech sector. As a consequence, it is vital to foster the development of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, Quantum, or IoT. These technologies hold a transformative potential for EU industries and will be catalysts for innovation.

On the other hand, digital technologies require massive volumes of data that need advanced infrastructures for super-fast transmission and processing, and the EU is lagging behind in their deployment.  We all know from the European Commission that the EU faces a gap of at least 200 billion euros to deploy 5G and 6G coverage. In other words, Europe, to be innovative, urgently needs robust, fast, low-latency, and secure networks.

 The coming Digital Network Act (DNA) will be the opportunity to tackle this challenge, but not only.

The DNA will have to address the virtualization of the networks. In this context, technologies such as edge computing are emerging as an alternative to relying just on the cloud. By processing data locally, edge computing reduces latency and minimizes the amount of data that needs to be sent to the cloud, which can lower costs associated with data transmission. Therefore, the EU should take policy action to enhance its capabilities in edge computing and establish coordinated technical standards for its deployment.

In a data-driven economy, both edge computing and cloud computing are complementary. While edge computing offers reduced latency and transmission costs, cloud computing is key for more extensive and heavy data processing and storage. This combination can maximize the benefits of both systems. Following Mario Draghi, we should advance towards an EU-wide policy for public procurement of cloud.

Reinforcing our digital infrastructure is the second pillar, with a special emphasis on the need to upgrade High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure and semiconductors. HPC is essential for developing and training advanced AI models, ensuring they can be deployed across all sectors and integrated into industry value chains.

The Digital Europe Program, with a budget of 7.5 billion euros dedicated to upgrading technological infrastructures such as supercomputing, and the launch of the Euro-HPC Joint Undertaking in 2018 has made this progress possible. Thanks to these initiatives, the EU has several supercomputers: LUMI in Finland, Leonardo in Italy, and Mare Nostrum 5 in Spain. Furthermore, two exascale computers are planned to be launched in the near future.

Digital infrastructure is not sufficient. It is imperative to open and facilitate access to HPC centers for SMEs, start-ups, and broader AI community.

At the same time, addressing Europe’s dependency on semiconductors and chips is equally critical. Looking at the bigger picture, semiconductors and chips are another of our weaknesses.  The EU Chips Act was introduced to address these challenges and to enhance Europe’s position in the semiconductor value chain, attract significant investments, increase domestic production capacity, and implement mechanisms to monitor and respond to supply disruption.

The third pillar is about tackling the digital skills shortage. In my view, digital education can be seen as a value chain per se with a horizontal impact on all economic sectors.

Digital training is critical at each educational stage, from the basic to the highest levels. We must remember that the EU’s competitiveness and success in the digital transition rely on having a society equipped with the necessary digital skills.

Let me finally underline that a competitive and innovative Europe also depends on unlocking the full potential of Data.  Indeed, the development of digital technologies (AI, Quantum, IoT…) is inextricably linked to the availability of data, and in particular, industrial data. In that sense, the Data Act, becoming applicable in September 2025, will enable access to an almost infinite amount of industrial data, while respecting trade secrets and intellectual property rights. In short, the Data Act will be an opportunity for competitiveness and innovation, and in a very special way for SMEs and start-ups.

To conclude, a competitive Europe needs a true Digital Single Market built upon reducing bureaucracy, cutting red tape, and fostering interoperability and standardization.

We have a long way to go, but also an opportunity we cannot miss. The time is now.