COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Digital Europe programme for the period 2021-2027
Date: 2021-03-19
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, artificial intelligence, data processing, digital literacy, digital single market, digital technology, digitisation, information security, information technology applications, innovation

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 19.3.2021  COM(2021) 146 final 2018/0227 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Digital Europe programme for the period 2021-2027 (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
 
2018/0227 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and 
of the Council on the Digital Europe programme for the period 2021-2027 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND  

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council (document COM(2018) 434 final – 2018/0227 COD) 

6 June 2018 

Date of Council agreement on a Partial general approach 

29 November 2018 

Date of trilogue 1 

13 February 2019 

Date  of  the  partial  provisional  compromise  agreement  (common 
understanding) endorsed in Coreper 

13 March 2019 

Date  of  the  position  of  the  European  Parliament,  first  reading 
(incorporating the common understanding): 

17 April 2019 

Dates of the trilogue 2 (final) 

Date  of  political  agreement  in  the  Committee  of  Permanent 
Representatives  

14 December 2020 

18 December 2020  

Date    the  ITRE  Committee  of  the  European  Parliament  voted  to 
endorse the compromise agreement  

14 January 2021 

Date of adoption of the Council first reading position 

16 March  2021 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The  Digital  Europe  programme  is  a  central  element  of  the  Commission's  comprehensive 
response  to  the  challenge  of  digital  transformation,  part  of  the  Multiannual  Financial 
Framework (MFF) proposal for 2021-2027.  

The aim of the proposal is to establish a spending instrument to maximise the benefits of the 
digital  transformation  for  EU  citizens,  businesses  and  public  administrations,  namely  by 
reinforcing  EU  digital  capacities  in  five  key  areas  (so  called  'specific  objectives'):  High 
Performance  Computing,  Artificial  Intelligence,  Cybersecurity  and  Trust,  Advanced  Digital 
Skills and Deployment, best use of digital capacity and interoperability.  

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Digital Europe constitutes an investment programme focused on building the strategic digital 
capacities  of  the  EU  and  on  facilitating  the  wide  deployment  of  digital  technologies,  to  be 
used by Europe’s citizens and businesses. It addresses the Union’s key priorities, notably the 
green and digital transition and resilience of the single market.  It will concentrate on the areas 
where no single Member State alone can ensure the level required for digital success. Focus 
will also be placed on those areas where public spending has the highest impact. The agreed 
overall financial envelope is EUR 7.59 billion (in current prices) 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  Council's  position  fully  reflects  the  agreement  reached  in  the  trilogues.  The  most 
important changes introduced compared to the Commission’s proposal include:  

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Protection  of  the  financial  interests  of  the  Union.  A  recital  with  a  reference  to  the 
general  regime  of  conditionality  for  the  protection  of  the  Union  budget  against 
breaches of the principles of the rule of law affecting its sound financial management 
or the protection of the financial interests of the Union was aligned with the agreed 
wording of the mechanism. The Commission supported such alignment.   

Alignment of the Digital Europe Programme to the duration of the MFF 2021-2027. 
The Commission supported the objective of ensuring continuity in case of delays in 
the  transition  to  the  future  multiannual  financial  framework  without  interpreting 
agreed provisions as providing an automatic extension of the programme. 

Retroactivity  clause.  Retroactivity  provisions  were  added  to  ensure  continuity  in 
providing support to legacy actions currently supported under the Connecting Europe 
Facility  and  Interoperability  solutions  for  public  administrations,  businesses  and 
citizens (ISA2) Programmes and to allow for implementation as of the beginning of 
the MFF 2021-2027. The Commission supported this addition.  

to 

the 

the  contribution 

Climate. Reference to the overall climate spending target for the entire MFF (initially 
25%)  was  updated  to  30%.  Biodiversity  target.  The  substance  of  the  standard 
biodiversity  recital,  namely 
target  for  biodiversity 
expenditures,  was  added  in  the  recital  providing  for  a  climate  target.  The 
Commission  agreed  to  the  update  of  the  Climate  target  and  the  addition  of  the 
Biodiversity target.  
Budget  distribution  over  the  Specific  Objectives  and  the  financial  envelope  for 
‘Interoperability’.  The  amounts  allocated  to  Specific  Objectives  were  reduced 
proportionally,  reflecting  the  weighting  and  balance  of  the  original  proposal 
(linear/pro-rata  cut  across  the  Specific  Objectives),  while  protecting  the  financial 
envelope for interoperability. The Commission supported maintaining the weighting 
and balance of the original proposal.  
Horizontal  alignment  of  provisions  related  to  the  transfer  back  of  unused  funds 
transferred to the DEP from resources under shared management. Provisions related 
to  the  transfer  back  of  unused  funds  transferred  to  the  DEP  from  resources  under 
shared  management  were  introduced,  mirroring  the  approach  adopted  in  Horizon 
Europe.    On  8  March  2019,  the  Commission  made  a  declaration  expressing  its 
objections  to  the  agreement  with  respect  to  the  provisions  on  transfer  of  funds 
(Article 9.5) and co-financing.  

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Adoption  of  work  programmes.  It  was  agreed,  by  all  parties,  that  work  programmes 
would  be  adopted  in  the  form  of  implementing  acts  with  use  of  the  examination 
procedure  (comitology).  Agreement  was  also  reached  on  the  use  of  delegated  acts  to 
modify Annex 1.  

Cybersecurity.  Additional  clarifications  were  made  regarding  the  implementation  of 
actions  under  Specific  Objective  3,  Cybersecurity  and  Trust,  whereby  this  Specific 
Objective  will  be  implemented  mainly  through  the  proposed  European  Cybersecurity 
Industrial,  Technology  and  Research  Competence  Centre  and  the  Cybersecurity 
Competence Network (CCCN).  

Participation of third countries. The possibility of a partial association of third countries 
to  the  programme  at  the  level  of  individual  Specific  Objectives  was  made  explicitly 
possible.  

Seal  of  Excellence.  Provisions  related to  the Seal of Excellence have been aligned with 
equivalent  provisions  under  Horizon  Europe,  while  respecting  the  specificities  of  both 
programmes. The scope of application of the Seal of Excellence under the DEP has been 
modified to exclude references to programmes, which legal bases do not allow to rely on 
DEP’s Seal of Excellence in their award criteria.  

The  agreement  reached  preserves  the  objectives  of  the  Commission’s  original  proposal, 
maintaining the level of  ambition but  allowing for sufficient  flexibility in implementing the 
new rules.  

4. CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  supports  the  results  of  the  inter-institutional  negotiations  and  therefore 
accepts the position taken by the Council. 

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