【英文】德国外交关系理事会报告：欧盟如何在美中夹缝间求生存（51页）

By 2030, the EU is a fully-fledged technological peer of the  United States and China, matching them in the number  of essential patents and unicorns,203rates of venture capital, and attractiveness for ICT talent. Driven by the societal  embrace of digitization in the aftermath of the COVID-19  lockdowns, both technological adoption and investment in  homegrown tech increase. A Europe-wide pension fund reform in 2022 allows more investment in start-ups. The Digital Single Market is completed by 2024, flanked by worker  mobility measures attracting highly skilled labor to the  EU. The EU has gone beyond regulatory-style reform with  a number of flagship initiatives. These include the “digital  euro” launched by the ECB in 2022, the Mars exploration  program launched by the ESA in 2023, and breakthroughs  in quantum technologies. The Franco-German-led Gaia-X  project becomes a triumph of clever political-technological design, providing the basis for an interoperable, secure  cloud infrastructure – a federated system that has enabled  a wide range of new services and providers through healthy  competition. The system is adopted in third countries. 

As a  result, other EU standards such as the “GDPR 2.0” are copied, giving EU tech companies a competitive edge.Thanks to this innovation drive and the Digital Single Market  initiative, the digital divide across Europe is finally bridged.  Fiber connectivity is available for all companies and private  households and high bandwidth and low latency are standard. By 2029, broadband penetration has reached 99.9  percent, and 5G is operational in both rural and urban areas throughout Europe, further driving innovation and new  business models and helping Europe play to its strengths in  the Internet of Things, robotics, health, mobility, and gaming. As a result, overall political cohesion increases, and the  EU is able to set rules quickly. Although technological breakthroughs are vast, society is not overwhelmed by disruption  or data overload. Thanks to digital uptake, education has  kept up with the needs of a new tech economy, labor laws  have been adequately adapted, and new technologies such  as AI are subject to appropriate and ethical regulation, supporting everyday life. Governments and private companies  have worked together to raise levels of trust. New opportunities emerge through investment in innovative technologies, including those related to global greening and the  vanishing divide between the EU’s north and south.