Europe’s COVID-19 Recovery Strategy: Six Key Areas as a Response to the Crisis

 

The European DIGITAL SME Alliance published a new document outlining the key areas the countries should focus on in order to recover from the crisis. The Europe’s COVID-19 Recovery Strategy: A Chance for Sustainable Digital Transformation report focuses on six priorities: liquidity support, digital skills, investment, cybersecurity and standards, digital sovereignty, and taxation.

The Alliance’s position is that instead of turning SMEs into minimally-skilled end-users of ICT solutions, the crisis could be the beginning of a complete and sustainable process of their digital transformation if Europe takes definitive action.

According to the document, although the digitalization of the European economy had begun long before COVID-19, the virus has caused a drastic acceleration of the process. Companies that used to be hesitant about the digitalization of their businesses now have no choice but to embrace the change if they want to survive.

In the digital sovereignty part, the report notes the importance of establishing national / European platforms for collecting and scaling up solutions against COVID-19. The Alliance has already developed such a platform where it collects digital solutions provided by European SMEs, which include remote networking solutions, telemedicine, 3D printing, legal instruments, and more. The Alliance’s position is that these solutions must be scaled up and provided to the businesses that need them.

Check the “Digital Solutions in Times of COVID-19” platform with instruments that will improve your competitiveness in the new situation. Some companies are offering their solutions for free. If you don’t find a suitable solution among those already included in the platform so far, you can describe the specific challenge your company is facing, and other participants in the platform could propose/develop a solution to your problem. You can also join the platform by sending a description of your company’s solution developed in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

You can read the full text of the document here.

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The European DIGITAL SME Alliance is the largest network of small- and medium-sized ICT companies in Europe, representing about 20,000 digital SMEs. The Alliance brings together the efforts of 30 national and regional SME associations from the EU Member States and neighboring countries and puts digital SMEs at the center of the EU agenda.