Innovation to secure digital future - Main contents
Innovation is our best exit strategy from this ongoing crisis, and this is one of the topics I will be exploring tomorrow at Net Futures 2015 in Brussels. I'm looking forward to the debate on how to boost the competitiveness of the European technology industry, how to make it easier for European innovators to start their company, which new high potential technologies need our full focus and how to stay on track in creating fully digital economy.
It does not come as a surprise that we need an all-encompassing approach to that.
The Commission's plans for a Digital Single Market - which I will debate with my fellow Commissioners earlier in the day - will be the very foundation for a Europe that is open for innovation.
Cloud, big data and Internet of Things - all major themes of the Net Futures conference - are at the heart of the digital economy and a catalyst for economic growth and innovation. There are problems. Europe's fragmented market for cloud services and data products means that cloud computing, big data, data-driven science and the Internet of Things to have not yet reached their full potential. And this is something we will be talking in the DSM strategy which will be more fully outlined in May
But we should not paint a picture of gloom and doom. There are some well-known EU-born success stories, and many more which deserve greater attention. FIWARE technology is a good example of European Innovation helping to build open service, multi-vendor platform - avoiding the vendor lock-in that holds back innovation. Thanks to EU research investment, FIWARE provides the open-source building blocks for apps and services. They combine Big Data, Cloud Computing and Internet of Things so that innovative developers to explore and exploit a wealth of data, speeding up their product development and creating new businesses.
Europe has today a unique opportunity to use the Internet of Things invigorate its industry, deal with its ageing population and transform its cities into bustling innovation hubs. Europe can become a leader in this field, and European players can emerge as winners in the Internet of Things industrial revolution. I am committed to support this process and tackle remaining obstacles in the Digital Single Market.
The Internet of Things must be a key element of the Digital Single Market. To make this happen, the Commission has proposed to create together with industry the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation, which I will have the pleasure to launch tomorrow. This initiative will help build synergies between the actors in the European Internet of Things ecosystem, both public and private. It will support convergence around common platforms and common standards.
I have no doubt that technology development is the only sustainable long term response to secure our digital future. Europe needs to reach critical mass in investing in Future Internet solutions. If we are ahead of the game, as we were in previous decades with aerospace and automotive technologies, we can be sure that the EU will be a digital world player also the day after tomorrow.
You can follow my speech, and all parts of the two-day conference online at
The event will also be live tweeted via # netfutures15
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