In October 2019 the new V4 initiative called Digital V4 Group was established. This tech coalition includes four organisations: Digital Poland Association (ZIPSEE) , IT Association of Slovakia (ITAS), Consumer Electronics Association in Czech Republic (ASE) and ICT Association of Hungarian (IVSZ). The Group was set up by organisations from digital and advanced technologies industry in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to strengthen a policy supporting development of innovation and digitization in Central and Eastern Europe. The initiative refers to political and economical collaboration between the four countries in scope of the Visegrad Group (V4), particularly the Warsaw Declaration supporting innovative economy, signed in 2017.
According to the POLITICO, the Digital V4 Group plans to act as “advisory boards” for their governments so they can convey their messages in EU discussions. The coalition also wants to lobby the European Commission and the European Parliament in Brussels directly because a stronger and more active voice for our part of Europe about the continent’s digital future is urgently needed. One of the reasons is the Eastern part of Europe has different needs compared to the West, for instance R&D Centres are currently preferably opened in Central and Eastern Europe which generates more job opportunities and new profile of employees. In view of this, V4 countries have to pay special attention to digital skills and have to take great care of small businesses.
On 19th February 2020 Digital V4 Group’s position paper regarding European Union’s “digital budget” was released. The Group made an appeal to the V4 countries’ governments for taking actions – during budget negotiations in Brussels – in favour of increasing the share of funds devoted to digitisation to 10 percent. It is crucial issue because the funds would help in boosting EU citizens’ digital skills, developing e-services and support V4’s start-ups who can commercialize their ideas more easily. Digital V4 position is consistent with the demands of the European digital industry associated in Digital Europe, which also calls for an increase digitization budget to 10% or increase research and development finance to 3% EU GDP. The full text of position paper is available below:
It is worth mentioning that digitization was main theme of the V4 Conference, held on 6th June 2019 in Brussels. The event was jointly organized by the representatives of the V4 Group: Slovak Liaison Office for Research and Development (SLORD), The Polish Science Contact Agency of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Czech Liaison Office For Research, Development and Innovation (CZELO) and Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU. The goal of the event was to create a platform for a discussion of distinguished experts, policy makers, professionals and researchers from various areas, who have direct experience with the uptake and applications of digital technologies. The main topics of the event were policy strategies at the European and national levels of the Visegrad countries in the field of digital transformation and presentations of scientists and researchers from the Visegrad countries, contributing to the creation of new knowledge and practical applications of digital technologies. Main outcomes and key messages from this V4 Conference can be found in special brochure:
