ABSTRACT
Recent technological innovations have led to a massive increase in personal and non-personal data. The COVID-19 crisis has added urgency to policies aiming at accelerating the digitalisation of public and private sector activities. Digital adoption in Europe has jumped from 81% to 95%, a rise that would have taken two to three years in most industries at pre-pandemic growth rates. The European Strategy for Data, approved in February 2020, was meant to be the policy instrument that would thrust the European Union into a data-driven economy that would have a lasting effect in the coming decades.
The strategy calls for the EU to seize its window of opportunity in the data economy, ensuring that more data becomes available for addressing societal challenges, whilst respecting and promoting European shared values. This chapter demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic is having a positive impact on the strategy up this point, and it will help achieve or even surpass its goals in the following years.
