Honourable Members,
Digitalisation is making things possible that were unthinkable even a generation ago.
Communicating with one another worldwide, access to information, progress in medicine, environmental protection, mobility, inclusion: there is no future without digitalisation. And Margrethe Vestager is the one to lead us on this journey to the future.
We will automate work that is wearisome for us humans: carrying heavy loads, performing repetitive tasks in factories or in offices.
And this will give us time. Time for what distinguishes human beings. Time for what computers can't do: empathy and creativity.
A care robot can help lift patients and make beds and digitalisation can help with administrative tasks. This will allow nursing staff to have time to do what is really important: to talk with their patients, to be there for them.
Digitalisation will enable us to handle resources more effectively and more efficiently, because we will be able to calibrate everything precisely: water consumption, energy, all the precious resources of our planet.
Digitalisation will change our society, our economy, our administration - root and branch. It is already doing so.
To grasp the opportunities and to address the dangers that are out there, we must be able to strike a smart balance where the market cannot. We must protect our European well‑being and our European values. In the digital age, we must continue on our European path.
In concrete terms:
First, we must have mastery and ownership of key technologies in Europe. These include quantum computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and critical chip technologies.
To do this, to close the gaps that exist now, we must act together. Let us pool our resources, our money, our research capacity, our knowledge. And let us put this into practice.
We have done it, for instance, with the supercomputer. Europe is currently in the process of acquiring one of the three most powerful computers on the world market. But the next generation of supercomputers must be built by us.
Second, Europe has all the scientists and all the industrial capabilities it needs to be competitive in these areas. Let's not talk ourselves down.
Innovation needs brains. But it also needs diversity, it needs space to think. We have all that here in Europe. People want to live here, want to do research here, want to shape the future here.
Third, we need infrastructure fit for the future, with common standards, gigabit networks, and secure clouds of both current and next generatipns.
Fourth, the raw material of digitalisation is data. With every click we feed the algorithms that then influence our own behaviour.
With the General Data Protection Regulation we set the pattern for the world. We have to do the same with artificial intelligence. Because in Europe we start with the human being. It is not about damming up the flow of data. It is about making rules that define how to handle data responsibly. For us the protection of a person's digital identity is the overriding priority.
Fifth, we also want innovation. Today, 85% of all non personal data is never used at all. This is a waste.
We must make use of the knowledge that is hiding within this unused data. We must establish a framework to enable governments and companies to share data and to pool it securely. I cannot imagine anyone better able to develop such a data strategy than Thierry Breton.
Sixth, cyber security and digitalisation are two sides of the same coin. This is why cyber security is a top priority.
For the competitiveness of European companies we have to have stringent security requirements and a unified European approach. We have to share our knowledge of the dangers. We need a common platform, we need an enhanced EuropeanCybersecurity Agency. That is the only way we can strengthen trust in the connected economy and boost resilience to dangers of all kinds.
We can do all this if we act together, if we build on our European values. And by doing so I am confident that Europe will play a leading role in the digital age.
Europe can do it!
BRON : Europa.eu