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European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel participates in the Digital Romania International Forum in Bucharest
The European future will be digital or "won't be at all" and Romania will be a winner due to its dynamism and startup network, while the region Romania is a part of also has a major impact on the development of this field, European Commissioner for Economic and Digital Society Mariya Gabriel stated on Tuesday.
She participated in the Digital Romania International Forum in the Capital City and confessed that she was "touched by the dynamism, motivation, commitment and vision" of some of the Romanian IT experts.
"The European future will be digital. Europe will become digital or it will cease to exist," she said, and also pointed out that "Romania is a legitimate winner of this process, due to its dynamism and network of startups created in such top fields of activity."
She also recalled that last year "Financial Times" published an eulogious article about the startups in Romania. Thus, in the European Commissioner's opinion, the country already has "an exceptional foundation" for education in science. "The entire world started to realize that Romania is a software supplier that exports very often," said Mariya Gabriel said, also adding that the proof for this are the 40 million euro invested this year in Romania in the startups in the area of activity.
She also said that "the models of excellency are visible in South-East Europe." Moreover, the European Commissioner spoke about the importance of integrating the countries in the Western Balkans.
More than this, the European official showed that "it is very important that this region gets mobilized to create digital hubs."
Mariya also said that 300 million euros are available at EU level for the next three years and 100 million will be invested in innovation, "in order to help startups develop."
However, supplementary efforts are still necessary, she appreciated, since there are some "worrying" figures regarding the population's digital competencies.
She said that 80 million Europeans have never used Internet.
In the end, the European Commissioner spoke about the Central and South-East Europe's capacity to bring a major contribution to the European digital future.
"I know this region very well. I know its challenges. But first of all I am aware of the force and advantages of it. This is a region that can and must play a major part in the building of Europe's digital future," Mariya Gabriel said.