READING TIME: 2 min
For Italian companies operating in Belgium and the rest of Europe, digital transformation has long ceased to be an optional strategic choice. It has become a direct competitive factor, with measurable consequences on productivity, market access, and the ability to attract talent. Meanwhile, the European Union has put concrete resources on the table: the stakes are not theoretical.
The 80% target, and the gap that remains to be filled
The heart of the European strategy is theDigital Decade Policy Programme, which sets the target of having 80% of European adults (aged 16-74) with at least basic digital skills by 2030. Alongside this, the programme aims to achieve 20 million ICT specialists employed in the EU, with a rebalancing of gender participation.
The interesting point, however, is the distance between ambition and current reality. According to the latest Eurostat data, by 2025, 60% of European citizens aged 16 to 74 had at least basic digital skills — up from 54% in 2021 and 56% in 2023, but still far from the target. Only four countries had already surpassed the 80% threshold: the Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, and Finland. The Commission itself has acknowledged that, without additional measures, at the current pace, we would reach 2030 with about 60% of the population equipped with basic skills, not the 80% expected.
The most lacking areas are not those one would expect. Most adults manage with communication and collaboration — email, social media, basic tools. The wider gaps concern digital content creation, basic cybersecurity practices, and the ability to solve technical problems. These are precisely the skills that make a difference in a business context.
On the business front, the picture is equally nuanced. In 2024, 73% of European SMEs had reached at least a basic level of digital intensity (using at least four specific technologies), against a target of over 90% by 2030. And in 2023, only 55% of European businesses had adopted at least one advanced technology among artificial intelligence, sophisticated cloud computing, or data analytics — about 20 percentage points below the target. Here too, the Nordic countries are leading the way: in Finland and Denmark, the share of businesses using these technologies exceeds 75%.
Resources already exist, and they are substantial.
What distinguishes the Digital Decade from a mere statement of intent is the financial allocation. The EU has allocated€26.3 billion for the development of digital skills in the period 2021-2027, drawing on structural funds and dedicated programmes such as Digital Europe. In addition, specific calls have been opened: among others, calls from the Digital Europe Programme for tens of millions of euros aimed at AI in healthcare, digital health, digital skills, and online security.
For a business, the practical reading is twofold. On one hand, there are accessible funding lines for training, staff retraining, and technological adoption — resources that often remain underutilised due to a simple lack of information. On the other hand, the underlying fact is that Europe is politically and financially betting on digitalisation: those who move early position themselves in the flow of investments, rather than chasing it.
Companies that have already invested in training on AI, automation, and data management are seeing tangible benefits on two fronts. In terms of productivity, the automation of repetitive processes and the use of data analytics free up resources and reduce errors. In terms of market access, digital maturity is increasingly an implicit requirement — in public tenders, in supply chains, and in relationships with clients who require interoperability and traceability.
The AI Act: a rule to be used as leverage, not to be endured
While discussing skills and investments, theEuropean AI Actis defining the rules of the game for those who develop or use artificial intelligence systems. It is the first comprehensive regulatory framework on AI adopted by a major regulator, and it applies in successive phases.
Some obligations are already in force: from February 2025, there will be bans on unacceptable AI practices (social scoring, subliminal manipulation, remote biometric identification in real time in public spaces) and obligations for AI literacy for providers and users. From August 2025, rules for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and governance provisions will come into effect.
The framework for 2026 is evolving and deserves attention. Most of the remaining rules are expected to come into effect from 2 August 2026, including the transparency obligations of Article 50 (such as the requirement to inform users when they interact with an AI system, for example, a chatbot). However, through theDigital Omnibus, the EU reached a political agreement in May 2026 — still subject to formal adoption — that significantly postpones deadlines for high-risk systems: delays of 12-16 months depending on the category, to allow time for the finalisation of technical standards and guidelines. The deadline for transparency solutions on AI-generated content (such as watermarking) has instead been set for 2 December 2026.
For businesses, there are two operational implications. The first: AI systems used in contexts such as recruitment, performance evaluation, task assignment, and worker monitoring are classified as high-risk — an area that directly affects the internal organisation of many companies, not just software houses. The second: the simplified framework for SMEs has also been extended to businesses with up to 750 employees and €150 million in turnover, with simplified guidance, reduced penalties, access to regulatory sandboxes, and standardised documentation models.
The bottom line is this: knowing the rules in advance does not just mean avoiding penalties — which can reach up to 35 million euros or 7% of annual global turnover in the most serious cases. It means being able to design products, processes, and contracts within a known framework, rather than having to redo them on the fly. Those who have mapped their AI systems in advance, identified high-risk ones, and prepared the documentation are in a better position than those who wait for the last deadline.
What does this mean, in practical terms, for an Italian company in Europe?
Bringing together the three threads — skills, investments, rules — a fairly clear picture emerges.
The digital skills gap in Europe is real and will not close on its own: for a company, this is both a risk (difficulty in finding qualified personnel) and an opportunity (those who train their people internally stand out in a tense labour market). Public resources to finance training and technological adoption already exist and are substantial, but they need to be accessed with an awareness of the calls for proposals and timelines. And the regulatory framework on AI, far from being just a burden, is a manageable variable: those who integrate it into their strategy rather than treating it as a last-minute compliance task reduce costs and uncertainty.
We are in one of those moments where staying informed is not a luxury. Deadlines shift, calls for proposals open and close, and regulatory interpretations sharpen month by month. For those operating between Italy, Belgium, and European markets, the ability to read these signals in advance — and translate them into operational decisions — is already a competitive factor in its own right.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Skills_for_the_digital_age