Track | Smart Villages Henna Virkkunen, MEP, EPP / European Parliament Mindtrek Conference 15th of November 2022. Tampere, Finland www.mindtrek.org

1. 15.11.2022 #Mindtrek
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Mindtrek
15.11.2022
Perspectives from
the EU level

2. Data economy
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● Data is a core component of the digital economy. It is
essential for safeguarding the green and digital transitions.
● A critical factor for innovation by businesses (e.g.
algorithm training) and by public authorities (e.g. shaping of
smart cities).
● However, most data remain unused or their value is
concentrated in the hands of a relatively few large
companies, with only 8 % of smaller companies and
businesses capturing value from data.
Kuva: Pixabay

3. The Digital Markets Act
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● The concentration of data in the hands of few of the biggest tech companies is hindering innovation and the growth
opportunities of later market entrants.
● The Digital Markets Act addresses the issue of concentrated digital markets. The main rationale of the Regulation is
to have a digital economy that benefits all.
● Now the so-called gatekeeper companies are required i.e., to allow their business users to access the data that they
generate on the gatekeeper’s platform and they are banned on using the data of business users when
gatekeepers compete with them on their own platform.

4. Data Act & Data Governance Act
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● Addressing the concentration of data is not enough. There is a need to foster the access and reuse of data among all
actors within the EU.
● The Data Act: removing barriers to access data, for both private and public sector bodies, while preserving incentives to
invest in data generation by ensuring a balanced control over the data for its creators.
● The Data Governance Act: aims to increase the amount of data available for re-use within the EU by allowing public
sector data to be used for purposes different than the ones for which the data was originally collected.

5. Cybersecurity
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● Strengthening free access to data does not mean uncontrolled access. Cybersecurity and resilience are one of the
most central components in our today’s digital societies.
● The Cybersecurity Act: reforming ENISA into a stronger EU cybersecurity agency with a permanent mandate and
greater operational resources.
● The Cyber Resilience Act: bolstering cybersecurity rules to ensure more secure hardware and software products.
● NIS2: an update to the old cybersecurity legal framework of the EU to address the changed cybersecurity threat
landscape.

6. Barriers to digital transformation
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Example: Lack of digitally skilled workers
● Every third person who works in Europe lacks basic
digital skills.
● Women are under-represented in tech-related
professions and studies (only 1 in 6 ICT specialists
being women)
● Simultaneously, the aging population of Europe
necessitates that skillful workforce arrives from third
countries to the EU.

7. DESI
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• The Commission publishes
the Digital Economy and
Society Index (DESI)
annually.
• Finland ranked first in the
2022 comparison

8. DESI
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• Finland's strengths have been
mentioned in particular as
comprehensive basic digital skills and
long traditions in information and cyber
security preparedness.
• Finland's challenge in the country report
is the coverage of a very large capacity
network in rural areas (does not take
mobile network into account)
• From the NextGeneration EU recovery
tool min. 20% will be directed to the
promotion of digitization.

9. Thank you
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