Dear all,

The figures just published in the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index 2019 paint a picture of an EU whose citizens are increasingly tapping into the opportunities of digitalisation in their daily lives. However the report also made clear that Europe needs to accelerate the digital transformation if it is to stay competitive globally. The technology industries represented by Orgalim are leading the charge in driving this change. Take the mechanical engineering firms profiled in our latest Technology at Heart, who are leveraging digital and data to transform how entire sectors operate and create new models for growth.

Yet the impact of digital is not limited to boosting economic prosperity; connected, data-driven tech is enabling innovative new solutions to urgent societal challenges. Digitalisation can make the energy system smarter and more efficient, for example, accelerating the clean energy transition to climate neutrality - a focus of our upcoming joint EU Sustainable Energy Week session. Moreover, digitally enabled technology can be a valuable tool in facilitating the circular economy, an area we have been exploring within the scope of an ongoing project with the European Policy Centre.

Speaking as we do on behalf of the industries spearheading these developments, Orgalim continues to actively engage in all relevant policy debates at EU level: whether contributing to the ‘Digital 4 Planet’ workshop at last week’s Digital Assembly hosted by the Commission and Romanian Presidency in Bucharest, or through our continued engagement in the Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI - soon to follow-up its ethics guidelines with policy and investment recommendations. To reinforce our advocacy efforts in this arena we were pleased to present our new Innovation and Digital Transformation team earlier this month, which will build on our longstanding expertise in areas from research and innovation to AI, cybersecurity and data.

Meanwhile as the newly elected European Parliamentarians get ready to take their seats in July, we too are busy preparing for the legislative term ahead. An important date for the diaries is our September 25 event at the Parliament in Brussels, co-hosted with the European Forum for Manufacturing, which will bring together MEPs and leading tech industry representatives to look at how EU industrial policy can strengthen competitiveness while enabling innovation to address societal challenges - details to be announced soon. Plus, pre-registration is already open for our November conference ‘Reinventing Europe’s Industrial Leadership’, which will focus on how EU industry can retain its competitive edge - digital transformation, needless to say, ranking high on the list of priorities.

All the best,