No citizen should lose out on the digital transition

Today, the plenary of the European Parliament adopted the report entitled „Path to the Digital Decade”, which sets out the EU’s digitalisation goals to be achieved by 2030. Fidesz MEP András Gyürk welcomed the adoption of the report, stressing that the goal of the digital transition should ultimately be the welfare of the citizens.

“The European Union should ensure that the digital transition centres the citizens instead of large corporations and tech companies” – emphasized the MEP. However, for the citizens to emerge as the primary beneficiaries of the transition, three basic conditions must be met.

It is essential that every European be provided with high-speed, affordable Internet access. Our country has achieved remarkable progress on this subject, as the number of households using broadband Internet of at least 1 Gigabit/second speed has reached three times the EU average. Hungary also performs above average in terms of very high capacity cable networks (VHCN) and 5G spectrum coverage.

„Beyond network access, the accessibility of digital services is of the utmost importance” – pointed out MEP András Gyürk. Along with the public sphere, the private sector is experiencing an increasing demand of online accessible services, thus the report’s objective promoting the digital transition of small and medium enterprises is commendable. SMEs cannot lose their competitiveness in the face of accelerated technological development.

Nevertheless, digital development comes with the risk that those who are excluded due to factors such as their age or social background, will find themselves at a disadvantage. For this reason, helping people obtain basic digital skills along with cybersecurity and cyber hygiene practices should be a central objective. „Digitalisation is about to fundamentally change our lives. Our goal is to make sure that no citizen loses out on this change” – stressed the MEP.