On Friday 18 December, the European Parliament and the EU Member States reached an agreement on the coronavirus recovery fund. The goal of the recovery package is not only to support the European economy. Its aim is also to stimulate the transition of the economy into a more sustainable and digital system, as 37% of the expenditure is exclusively dedicated to the green transition and Member States must spend a minimum of 20% on investments and reforms on their digital transitions. Furthermore, the entire budget will be subject to the new EU sustainable finance rules of the “do no significant harm” principle. This means that the facility cannot be used to finance any activity that significantly harms the environment.
The coronavirus recovery fund, therefore, aligns with the exploratory opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). This opinion was presented in September 2020 and was a request of the European Union’s German presidency. The EESC called for policies that further merges Europe’s societal values with the digital economies and ensures that every European citizen, company, or organisation can benefit, especially in rural areas. The EESC furthermore called on national and local governments to create transparent, fair, and green ICT production chains, ambitious energy standards and to support cooperative sharing platforms.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic did not only harm the European economy and society, it also led to some substantial changes in the European way of life. Transportation, production, and consumption have significantly decreased; however, the use of ICT mitigated energy-intensive working practices and lifestyles have increased. In their opinion, the EESC asked for appropriate political measures that maintain these positive aspects after the pandemic and guarantee and improve the energy efficiency of the data centres that sustain it.
The coronavirus recovery fund will mark the start of numerous investments that combine sustainability with digitisation. Nevertheless, it will not be the beginning of this process as there are already numerous initiatives that combine technology and sustainability.
More information on how technology is used to create a more sustainable world can be found on the Advanced Technology website. For instance, the Technology Focus on Cloud Computing discusses the environmental challenge of the cloud industry. For more information on advanced technologies in Europe, explore the ATI project website.