CEF Building Blocks feature at Masters of Digital 2021
At Masters of Digital, a virtual summit that took place over 3 and 4 of February 2021, European leaders and digital specialists from the public and private sector came together to discuss the role digital technology will play as a driving force in Europe's emergence from the pandemic. The event included keynote speeches from President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
While digital government is undoubtedly important for a robust, adaptable Europe with secure, accessible services for citizens, this on its own is not enough to meet the ever-evolving needs of European businesses and citizens. Public administrations at all levels need to digitalise, but they also need to support private sector innovation in this area, and make sure private and public digital ecosystems, as well as those in different Member States, grow together, not apart.
Building a digitally connecting Europe with the Building Blocks
During a panel discussion on the second day of the event, Mario Campolargo, Director-General of the European Commission's DG for Informatics, DIGIT, spoke about the importance of open source solutions and co-creation for Europe's digital future, including Europe's SMEs and startups. He reflected specifically on the role of standards-based digital solutions, such as the CEF Building Blocks.
The recent Digital Innovation Challenge saw European SMEs invited to design innovative new services for EU citizens based on these digital solutions. Mr Campolargo was a lead juror in the jury that eventually awarded the ultimate prize of €50,000 to CleverBooks, a platform for digital education resources leveraging augmented reality to make the learning experience more engaging for young people and develop essential digital skills from a young age.
Based on international standards, the Building Blocks make any digital system built with them fully interoperable across sectors and borders, playing a key role in connecting Europe digitally. They can be used in any cross-border European digital project and offer a variety of capabilities, from the secure exchange and preservation of data with eDelivery and eArchiving respectively, to letting EU citizens authenticate themselves across borders to access services with eID and eSignature.
As highlighted at Masters of Digital, as we emerge from the pandemic, digital technology is going to play a key role in how we establish new modes of living and working, but also new modes of collaboration between business, government and civil society.
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