A Digital Agenda

This chapter recounts how the Digital Agenda, an integral part of the Europe 2020 strategy, sought to promote digital technology across several areas. Legislative efforts included adjustments to copyright, telecommunications, and eSignature Directives. The revision of the eSignature Directive led to the establishment of the eIDAS Regulation in 2014, which aims to enhance cross-border authentication and trust in digital transactions within the EU. The text briefly turns to 2023, when the EU introduced the European Digital Identity Wallet (EDIW), a voluntary platform for citizens and legal entities to authenticate digital interactions. Public funding through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and Structural Funds, alongside regulatory efforts, aimed to stimulate broadband development. 4G-LTE, a significant advance over 3G-UMTS, transformed the mobile Internet, facilitating the rise of social media and making smartphones indispensable. European digital strategies such as i2010 and the Digital Agenda focused on harmonising spectrum allocation. Horizon 2020 was launched with a more straightforward structure and increased support for SMEs and public–private partnerships. The narrative touches on initiatives like the Future Internet, which aimed to advance European competitiveness in Internet technologies and data infrastructure, albeit with varied success and strategic focus. The Digital Scoreboard and the DESI index measured the impact of the Digital Agenda and have become the main tracking tools for capturing the EU’s progress towards its digitalisation goals.