Digital Assembly 2018
Prof. Rumen Nikolov - Vice-Chair of the Managing Board and Dimitar Hristov - CEO of the Cluster Sofia Knowledge City participated in the Digital Assembly 2018 that took place on 25 and 26 June in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event was co-organized by the European Commission and the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Digital Assembly is a major annual forum and gathered more than 1,500 stakeholders and high-level policymakers to debate the EU digital policy and the implications of recent technological developments. At the conference, Mariya Gabriel has - the Commissioner on Digital Economy and Society called for the full implementation of the Digital Single Market strategy by 2018.
The next Multiannual Financial Framework was also discussed in a separate panel. About 9 billion EUR from the future long-term budget of the EU will be used to bridge digital investment gaps between the Member States and tackle challenges in key areas of the digital economy. A large number of EU citizens and businesses are expected to benefit from such a process.
The program covered three plenary sessions and five parallel workshops, the Digital Assembly covered a wide range of current key topics on digital policy. The thematic topics laid the basis on:
1. Digital in the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework
2. Free flow of non-personal data and the April 2018 Data package
3. European Electronic Communications Code
4. Promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services.
The plenary sessions put a special focus on how Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Western Balkan countries, can best benefit from the digitization of their economies and societies and separate panel focussed on developments the Mediterranean region. A Lou was signed for the construction of a transnational digital corridor between Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia, according to which the three parties in the development of the transport corridors undertake to coordinate the digital infrastructure between them. The workshops were dedicated to key digital policy topics such as social media, cybersecurity, digital skills, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.
