The Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, today defended that “Europe invests in Europe” with the aim of gaining technological sovereignty in the current global race for technological hegemony. Faced with other models, López has claimed a third European way that “combines innovation, human rights and welfare” for citizenship.
The minister has participated in Amsterdam in the meeting of the D9+ forum that brings together the thirteen most digitalized countries in the EU in order to coordinate digital policies and ensure that legislation supports innovation, growth and cybersecurity. The meeting, which was attended by the Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, resulted in a joint statement.
In that text, Spain and the rest of the signatories urge increased investment in digital technologies to maintain global technological leadership. Among the key technologies that they ask to prioritize are Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, cybersecurity and data.
They are also committed to reducing barriers, simplifying rules and improving access to funding, especially for startups; encouraging investment by the European Investment Bank in digital risk capital; optimising public procurement, using the EU’s purchasing power to strengthen critical technologies and protect European interests; and coordinating technology regulation in cooperation with related partners.
Presentation of the SETT
Throughout the day, the D9+ countries have debated how to make better use of funding opportunities to invest in digital technology and talked about the future of connectivity and the infrastructure needed to boost the European Artificial Intelligence ecosystem.
In his speech, Óscar López called for public-private partnerships in the promotion of investments and presented the success story of the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), the government’s investment arm endowed with EUR 16 billion to co-invest in high-tech projects.
The minister referred to some of the co-investments already implemented by SETT, such as the entry into the capital of Spanish companies such as Multiverse Computing, considered the next Spanish unicorn thanks to its tool that compacts in 90% models of Artificial Intelligence language, achieving energy savings of between 50 and 80%.
SETT has also entered Wooptix, the leading Canarian company in semiconductor metrology; Sensia, a Madrid company of infrared technologies; is preparing to enter the Catalan company Sateliot, which offers satellite connection for the Internet of Things and, in collaboration with IMEC, SETT will collaborate with funding in the construction of a research and manufacture center for semiconductors of the Belgian company in Malaga, with an investment of 500 million euros by the Spanish Government.