Digital Innovation Club: How Germany and the Baltic States want to digitise Europe

With the Digital Innovation Club founded in November 2023, Federal Minister Dr Volker Wissing and his Baltic colleagues want to accelerate the digitalisation of the public sphere within the EU - with uniform standards and without new regulation. To this end, the digital ministers have presented nine points for a new EU digital agenda:

1. Ensure a first-class digital infrastructure as a prerequisite for a digitalised Europe.

2.Driving the development of a European data economy.

3. Ensure effective European platform regulation with a people-centred approach.

4. Establish cybersecurity as a common European objective and task.

5. Reduce administrative and legal hurdles in the EU for companies and consumers within the digital consumers within the digital space.

6. Expanded support for innovation and consolidated funding.

7. Strengthening digital expertise and skills in the digital space.

8. Active involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises, including start-ups, in the European transformation.

9. Ensuring effective and comprehensive digital governance.

The last point of the agenda is particularly important: the digital ministers from Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are calling for nothing less than a pan-European approach to digital administration. To this end, existing public institutions, data spaces and initiatives such as eu-LISA should be utilised and their competencies strengthened. Furthermore, the Innovation Club is calling for the creation of holistic, European interoperability, including interoperable electronic identities. A consistent strengthening of European cloud services is also envisaged as part of the digital agenda.

Edgars Rinkēvičs, President of this year's SCCON partner country Latvia, emphasises: ‘It is important that the European Union shares its knowledge about innovation among its member states and strengthens its competitiveness on a global level. The Baltic-German Digital Innovation Club initiative launched last year demonstrates this common goal of our policy makers and serves as a basis for further strengthening economic cooperation and knowledge exchange.’

Would you like to find out more about the Digital Innovation Club and its member states? At the Smart Country Convention, you can experience the Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs and the current Latvian Minister of Economy Viktors Valainis live on stage.

Further information on this year's partner country can be found here.