Digital connectivity in the European tech business offer

Europe's international digital policy is moving fast. Driven by intensifying geopolitical and technological competition, the EU set out in its 2025 International Digital Strategy to deepen digital partnerships around the world. At the heart of this effort is the new Tech Business Offer, an attempt to help European firms expand abroad while supporting partner countries' own development priorities.

Digital connectivity sits at the centre of this offer. Subsea cables, satellites, 5G and fibre networks, and data centres form the backbone of the global digital economy and Europe retains world-class capabilities across all of them. But translating those industrial strengths into a coherent, competitive international offer is proving harder than expected.

This project examines how the EU and its member states are building that offer in practice  and where the gaps lie. Drawing on around 40 interviews with European institutions, member state agencies, development banks, private companies and civil society, the work traces how the EU's external digital agenda has grown out of its internal regulatory base, evaluates Europe's industrial position sector by sector and assesses whether the diplomatic, financial and cooperation tools available to Team Europe are fit for purpose. It also looks closely at how individual member states – France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Sweden – are organising their own "Team National" approaches and what it will take to align them under a unified Team Europe.

Link: https://ecdpm.org/work/digital-connectivity-european-tech-business-offer