Digital jobs for all
Digital jobs for all
  • capitalise on the skills, knowledge and experience we already have to make sure Europe is ready to meet the challenge so we can create more and better jobs in the EU.
  • focus on training, retraining and life-long learning to support and prepare our workforce, and seize this new opportunity.
  • encourage social partners to support workers through transformations in the economy and workplaces, in particular by supporting people in need, defending labour rights and building strong partnerships.
  • research new forms of employment arrangements and ways to safeguard job quality, including modernising social security systems, labour law, social dialogue and collective bargaining, whilst maintaining high levels of protection for employees.
  • ensure that a transition towards a digital working environment does not undermine European working and employment standards, including labour law, health and safety regulations, data protection and consumer-protection standards.
  • monitor the qualitative and quantitative effects of the digital economy on employment – the digital dividend from gains in digital productivity should benefit all, not just the employers.
Industry and innovation
Industry and innovation
  • promote start-up accelerator programmes to help great ideas grow and evolve.
  • develop innovative cross-border European hubs to create regions with concentrations of skills and businesses to generate new jobs and opportunities.
  • seek closer co-operation between well-established companies and new start-ups to promote an integrated, sustainable and competitive 'digital manufacturing' industrial model.
  • create technology centres in less-industrialised European regions to help boost local economies and share innovation and access to information with start-ups and small businesses from all over Europe.
  • support open standards to foster collective working and innovation. Open source and open access accelerate innovation processes and improve research and development. New ideas, products and services should be encouraged to embrace inter-operability, independence and portability.
  • develop European inter-operability standards, solutions and frameworks.
  • ensure that new technologies promote sustainable growth, enhance quality of life, address climate change and energy efficiency issues, including disposal and reuse.
E-government
Digital inclusion

E-government:

  • promote and encourage the re-use of public sector information.
  • allow all European citizens easy access to more online administration services, with greater cross-border inter-operability of electronic ID schemes. 
  • use the opportunities of big data technology to improve public data sources and develop smart and sustainable solutions in areas such as public transport, smart cities, agriculture and maritime sectors.
  • encourage digitisation in European and national public administrations to make them modern and cost-effective.

Infrastructure:

  • prioritise high-speed connectivity for all,  covering all parts of the European Union including rural and remote areas.
  • use public and private financing for inclusive digital infrastructure.

Skills:

  • support small businesses and citizens – especially the elderly and people with disabilities – to ensure inclusive and border-free access to digital services.
  • embed digital skills in school curricula from primary level upwards.
  • develop digital education programmes adapted to both girls and boys.
  • promote STEM (Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics) subjects in higher education.
  • guarantee open access to digital education and ICT tools.
Man on laptop entering password
Online rights: trust and fairness

Trust: data protection and cyber-security

  • implement the Data Protection Package, which must make protecting citizens a priority. 
  • ensure that digital technologies that use big data respect personal privacy.
  • implement the Network Information Security (cyber-security) directive to ensure better co-operation to deal with cyber-attacks.
  • work with digital companies to prevent cyber-bullying and promote 'online best behaviour'.
  • promote digital literacy development targets at a global level.
  • guarantee online protection for vulnerable people – especially children and online abuse. An open and free internet for all does not mean an internet without rules.
  • analyse the cultural and societal impact of a digitised society.

A fair deal for consumers

  • end mobile phone and data roaming charges inside the EU and ensure that cross-border call charges are fair.
  • guarantee legal certainty for genuine net neutrality to ensure all internet traffic is treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference. Traffic management should only be allowed in exceptional circumstances and within clear legal limits.
  • improve consumer protection (including universal service provision) in electronic telecommunications framework rules.
  •  ensure that the E-commerce Directive protects consumers and creates a  fairer, innovation-friendly online environment. 
  • establish a Europe-wide labelling scheme to inform consumers about receiver performance in mobile phones.
  • enforce EU competition rules to prevent excessive market concentration and abuse, to monitor competition for bundled content and services, and consider rules to unbundle search engines from other commercial services.

Digital economy

  • review the business practices of 'sharing economy' platforms and consider a framework for platforms in the digital economy.
  • regulate content, access or privacy and data protection in the same way for so-called 'over the top' providers as for the traditional telecoms and audiovisual services.
  • find a fair solution to geo-blocking so paid content or information can be accessed in another EU country without restricting the digital economy or pushing EU consumers to use illegal tools to get round it.
  • ensure a co-ordinated, fair and sustainable tax policy adapted to the digital economy.
  • review European copyright laws to ensure that they will support public access to cultural goods while finding balanced solutions to guarantee creators' rights, fair remuneration and investment in the cultural sectors.