12 months, 12 words: DIGITALEUROPE's year in review
Oh, oh, oh! Merry Christmas, and happy last #WeeklyDEbrief of the year!
Before you go on holiday, come with us down memory lane as go through the best moments of 2024. Spoiler, it was PACKED. And that's why we couldn't chose just one "word of the year", so we went for 12 instead: one per month.
🚦 Ready to dive in?
Read on to find out if any of our words resonate with your year too 🧐
🤝January: Unity - the beating European heart
We started the year with a lovely mission: reviving the passion between EU companies and the European Single Market.
In other words, removing all the barriers that still prevent businesses from trading across borders (only 8% do!), which is one of the reasons Europe cannot grow successful tech companies.
🌟February: Hope - to become a digital powerhouse
More than 2000 eyes witnessed our biggest and best Masters of Digital EVER. We were lucky to open the event with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo , who delved into Europe’s chances to become a digital powerhouse, and into our 20 ideas to make it happen.
The icing on the cake was awarding our 2024 Future Unicorn Award to the Spain-based Multiverse Computing!
👁️ March: Vision - leading on AI
The final text of the AI Act was stamped at the European Parliament on March 13. We asked: what now? Will this piece of legislation boost AI innovation or will it stifle it?
The answer lies on how it’s implemented. During a very productive roundtable on AI with MEPs, we agreed on two priorities: a unified EU-wide approach (avoiding 27 different interpretations), and clear guidelines for businesses to enable confident innovation.
🌐April: Cooperation - better together
Together. That's the key message that came out of our Presidency Summits, our most pan-European event bringing together the leaders of our digital associations across Europe. This year, we called for better coordination between EU member states from Hungary and Poland.
💪May: Determination - close the critical tech gap = put Europe back on the map
Europe only leads in 1️⃣ of eight critical technologies. This worrying finding got us thinking: why is this happening, and what should Europe do to also lead in tech like AI, quantum, or semiconductors? Check the answers here.
By the way: May was Europe's Day, click here to see how we celebrated it!
🤔June: Suspense- what happens after the elections?
What now? We asked ourselves after the EU elections took place. “It’s time to finally become a digital powerhouse”, we answered. And we looked at how to do that at our Summer Summit 2024, where we recognised Margrethe Vestager 's work as EU Tech Commissioner with a Master of Digital award.
Watch the highlights:
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💡July: Brainstorm – the future of Europe
With the elections digested, we traveled to sunny Strasbourg to discuss with MEPs and our members the way forward for Europe.
😌 August: Recharge - Let's take a break!
Okay, we've reached the halfway point of the year (and this newsletter), so... why not take a little break just like our team did? Here are some of our favorite team moments from the year:
💥September: Competitiveness - Europe's top priority
The Draghi Report made it crystal clear: Europe needs to step up its competitiveness game. From the European Parliament, our Director General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl also shared the 3 reasons why:
🛡️October: Resilience - the future of defense
Innovation fuels resilience, a topic we explored at #GLOBSEC2024. How do we know? Just look at Ukraine’s digitalization of defense, which inspired our defense publication and our FIRST Roundtable on Tech in Defense:
🧠November: Readiness – building digital skills
At our FIRST-EVER Digital Skills Summit, we explored how Europe is READY to empower citizens with digital knowledge.
And talking about readiness: following the US elections, Europe is also ready for stronger transatlantic cooperation.
🏁December: Aspiration – winning the tech race
As the year wraps up, we set our 3-step game plan for Europe to win the tech race: cut (costs), simplify (laws), incentivise (innovation).
Unlike your friends’ New Year's fitness resolutions (we know: 15 days max! 😉), we’re committing to this game plan for the next five years of the European Commission ! And we're 100% #EuropeCan make it to the finish line in first place.
👾Quick 2024 Bits and Bytes
👋 That's all for today and this year. We'll bring you more digital hits next year.
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