Europe Suffering From Digital Poverty, Warns EC

Europe is a digital pauper compared to the United States and must put more resources into improving technical skills and creating a single digital market for the region, according to the European Commisson.

In a hard-hitting speech, delivered as part of the Digital Agenda for Europe European Business Leaders Convention Brussels this week, vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said that Europe was suffering from a lack of technical skills.

“Europe suffers from digital poverty and no amount of traditional social security can hide that. It hurts the daily and professional life chances of millions and it holds business back. It can’t continue,” she warned.

Kroes called on member states to pull together on developing IT skills and infrastructure. “You probably also know that US productivity growth is higher than Europe’s. And the lion’s share of that gap is due to their bigger and better investment in ICTs. Would you say this is acceptable,” said Kroes. “I certainly do not think so. And what is more, this information makes it clear that effective use of ICT is a pre-condition for achieving the growth that President Barroso envisions.”

Europe A World Beater

European companies are capable of innovating as well as their US competitors said Kroes and cited the example of Nokia which she said still has a bigger market share than Apple, despite all the attention lavished on the iPhone-maker.

“Europe can produce world beaters. You would never believe it given all the hype from Apple, but Nokia’s smart phone market share is still three times the size of Apple’s at nearly 50 percent,” she said. “And I note that Nokia’s decades of success have been partly built on the GSM standard that developed from European Commission-funded research.”

But despite some past glories, Europe is in danger of being left behind according to Kroes due to lack of investment in infrastructure and skills and failiure to create a single digital market in the region.

“Anyone who doesn’t believe in the need for action is living with the fairies,” said Kroes. “I will not pretend that our Digital Agenda for Europe could or should dictate the design and scale and direction of the Internet or other technologies. But we are determined to create a new set of conditions for ICTs and the Internet ecosystem of the future. We are determined to support all parties to take advantage of those better conditions.”

The EC is pushing its Digital Agenda for Europe as a way to meet some of the shortfalls in Europe’s digital progress to date. The Digital Agenda is part of a wider plan to reform Europe post-recession, laid out in the Commission’s Europe 2020 Strategy.

No Digital Option But Piracy

Kroes’s speech is the latest in a series of calls by the digital commissioner for Europe to up its game when it comes to technology and the Internet. Last month, she attributed some of the blame for Internet piracy at the lack of single digital market in Europe which makes it easier to download content illegally than buy it on legitimate sites.

“One result is that the US market for online music is five times bigger than Europe’s,” said Kroes. “Another result is that for the moment one could almost say that the only existing Digital Single Market for audiovisual material is the illegal one.”