This research evaluates the effectiveness of the European Union’s (EU) 2030 Digital Decade Policy Programme (DDPP), highlighting its current shortcomings and providing recommendations for improvement. The DDPP aims to enhance the EU’s global competitiveness and align digital transformation with European values, focusing on digital skills, infrastructure, business digitalisation, and public services. However, the 2023 and 2024 reports indicate that the EU is off track to meet its 2030 goals, with slow progress on all targets. Potential challenges stemming from a failure of the DDPP include a loss of technological competitiveness, a widening digital divide, skills polarisation, and the creation of new vulnerable groups. Reckoning with the critical state of the DDPP, President von der Leyen has tasked Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President (EVP) for Tech, Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, with a review of the strategy to be carried out in 2026. Ahead of it, this research aims to kickstart a conversation on the need to substantially and comprehensively revisit the DDPP targets. It combines desk research with expert discussions to assess the effectiveness of the Digital Compass and reveals significant delays, funding issues, and an overall lack of coherence in the strategy.
To this end, the research recommends:
• Addressing Europe’s investment gap to accelerate progress on the triple green, digital, and economic security transition. To do so, the Commission should encourage public-private partnerships, strengthen the single market, and create favourable conditions for European companies to scale up.
• Revising the DDPP’s objectives along with its implementation. The Commission should address unrealistic goals, poor implementation, and the overall lack of alignment with Europe’s quest for technological sovereignty. To do so, it should prioritise realistic targets and enhance accountability mechanisms.
• Integrating the DDPP with other EU instruments. The Commission should work closely with fellow EVPs for cohesion and reform and for social rights and skills, quality jobs, and preparedness to coordinate the EU’s response to challenges that promise to affect the cohesiveness and resilience of the European project.
• Prioritising digital skills development over unrealistic targets. The Commission should focus on re-skilling and up-skilling through high-quality, freely available vocational education training (VET) modules, promote credential harmonisation, and facilitate the sharing of best practices among member states.
• Further institutionalising the practice of strategic foresight in EU policy-making to strengthen societal resilience.
This focus paper is part of work package 9.
Funded by the European Union.
Horizon Europe – Research and Innovation Actions.
Grant no: 101060825
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