European Union's initiatives relevant to the Digital Economy in Palestine

Gérard GALLER, gerard.galler@ec.europa.euInternational Policy Officer DG CONNECT – Communications Networks, Content and Technology European Commission

1.10.2015

Expotech, Ramallah, Palestine – 5.10.2015

Contents

• The Digital Economy Ecosystem • The Union for the Mediterranean• The European Neighbourhood Policy• Regulatory harmonisation• Research infrastructure• Higher Education: Erasmus+• Research & Innovation: H2020 / ICT

The Digital Economy Ecosystem

• Research• Innovation• Education

• Public administration / Legal framework

• e-Infrastructure

• Evolution of the "Barcelona Process" / EUROMED• Co-presidency: European Union & Jordan• Secretariat: UfM Secretariat• 43 Members States:

• 28 EU Member States + • EU Candidates (Albania , Bosnia & Herz., Montenegro, Turkey) + Monaco + • 10 South Med Countries: (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon,

Mauritania, Morocco , Palestine, Syria, Tunisia)• One objective:

• Enhance EUROMED regional cooperation and integration through concrete projects and initiatives

• Six priority areas incl. Business Dvlopmt. & SMEs & Employability• Allows "combining" European Commission support to:

• EU Member States support to projects • Other donors (eg. EIB, EBRD, Arab donors, …)

4

Union for the Mediterranean

Ministerial meeting on Digital Economy• Brussels, 30.9.2014• Final Declaration: the Ministers

recognised importance of ICT for growth & jobs identified common challenges (big data, privacy, cloud,

Internet governance, …) Called for actions

• Proved that Digital Economy is "the" topic: where consensus is achieved which offers a positive outlook

• "Digital Economy Expert Working Group" DEWoG• 9-10.12.2015, Barcelona

European Neighbourhood Policy-ENP

EU policy towards "neighbouring" countries Bilateral focus Regional focus

DG CONNECT participation to the UfM exercise is likely to go through ENP funding mechanism (tbc) May include "Twinning" mechanism to support public

administrations ENP currently under revision: "Communication" on

18.11.2015 (tbc) Increased weight of Digital Economy in the revised

ENP (tbc)

Regulatory harmonisation

• Telecom: EMERG MTIT: Ministry for Telecommunications and IT

EUMEDConnect

EUMEDCONNECT1&2 (2001-10) EU Funding: 14 M€.

Establishment of ASREN: 2011 EUMEDCONNECT3 (2011-

15+)EU Funding 3.2M€

• Currently only Algeria and Egypt connected to EUMEDCONNECT3

• Other South Med NRENs have no dedicated international connectivity for Research & Education networking.

• Renewed interest amongst the beneficiary countries for R&E networking (explicit support of UfM ICT ministers to EUMEDCONNECT )

• Ongoing discussions for development of EUMEDCONNECT after 2015

Erasmus+

Support to Higher Education including in ICT

• Joint projects: New curricula & degrees, learning and teaching methodologies, staff development, quality assurance, governance, Bologna tools

• Structural projects: Reforms at national level with support of authorities in Partner Countries (policy modernisation, Bologna policies, governance and management of higher education systems…)

• Additional mobility component for ENP countries

Horizon 2020

EU programme for Research and Innovation

• €80 billion, 2014 -2020

• Coupling research with innovation: 'from lab to market'

• Focus on societal challenges: health, clean energy, transport, etc.

• Open to participation:

• companies, universities, institutes

• EU and beyond (eg. Palestine)

ICT in H2020

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Excellent Science

Frontier Research (ERC)

Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Skills and career development (Marie Skłodowska-Curie)

Research Infrastructures

Societal Challenges

Health, demographic change and wellbeing

Food security, sustainable agriculture,and the bio-based economy

Secure, clean and efficient energy

Smart, green and integrated transport

Climate action, resource efficiency,and raw materials

Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies

Secure societies

Industrial Leadership

Leadership in enabling

and industrial technologies

ICT

Nanotech., Materials, Manuf. & Processing

Biotechnology

Space

Access to risk finance

Innovation in SMEs

ICT ICT

ICT

ICT

ICT

ICT

ICT

ICT

ICTICT

ICT

ICT

ICT