EC publishes report on digital competitiveness in Europe

Published on 13.08.2009

On 4 August, the European Commission (EC) published a report on digital competitiveness in Europe showing that the i2010 strategy has produced significant progress, such as, for example, turning Europe into a world leader in broadband internet, which has 114 million subscribers and is available to 93 percent of the population of 25 Member States of the European Union (EU25) - in 2005, availability stood at 87 percent.

With the title "Europe's Digital Competitiveness Report - Main achievements of the i2010 strategy 2005-2009", the document also reveals that more Europeans are online, with the number of regular Internet users growing from 43 percent in 2005 to 56 percent in 2008, a figure which has already risen to 75 percent today. Another sector with great momentum is the mobile telephone, whose rate of penetration grew from 84 percent in 2004 to 119 percent in 2009, making Europe the world leader in this area. The report also shows that Europe has made good progress in the use of online public services, which, in 2007, were available to 50 percent of citizens and 70 percent of companies, compared to, 27 and 58 percent respectively in 2004.

In addition to the impact of the i2010 strategy, the EC also looks to the future and affirms that Europe needs a new digital agenda which faces the challenges ahead and which creates a world beating infrastructure and unlocks the potential of the internet as a driver of growth and the basis for open innovation, creativity and participation. In this respect, the Commission has launched a public consultation, open until 9 October, which invites all stakeholders to help define the priorities of the new European strategy for the EU information society in the period 2010-2015.

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