Event report

Please find below the five recommendations on how to foster digital transformation: 1. We endorse a vision of European cities, towns and villages where there are reliable, secure, robust, simple, user-friendly, effective, and compatible digital services, and call upon the CoR to provide guidelines on how to achieve this vision in the digital transformation of local administrations. 2. We call on the European Union to provide sufficient planning and funding for digital transition, especially in remote and rural areas, to ensure a widespread and effective Internet fiber optic infrastructure. The EU could use incentives for private and public companies. The EU should do its utmost to bridge the digital divide. 3. We call upon the Member States, as well as regional and local actors, to enhance education in digital skills and ensure that digital skills are taught at all levels of education. We stress the need for inclusive programmes of digital education and for the integration of older people and of women and girls into digital education and digital technology sectors. We call for robust European cooperation to further enhance digital education programmes in all cities, towns and villages. 4. We call upon the European institutions to fund IT activities and innovation in the private and public sectors by supporting incentives, tax cuts, venture capital etc. We stress the importance of keeping the personal data of European citizens within the EU in order to create new jobs in digital technology sectors in the EU (given that most software platforms come from the United States at the moment). 5. We call upon the EU to encourage women to go in STEM careers and fight the prejudices that push women and men into different career paths.