On the occasion of their next meeting in Brussels in December, EIF will welcome the European Digital Champions with a Cocktail Reception in the European Parliament. It will be a great opportunity for EIF members to meet and congratulate them.

A Digital Champion is appointed by each Member State to help them promote the benefits of an inclusive digital society. The European Council agreed in December 2011 that the Digital Single Market was an area of growth potential for the European Union and Vice-President Kroes asked the College to take up the challenge set by the Council. On 14 February 2012, President Barroso wrote to Member States and asked them to take action to make the Digital Single Market a reality: one way to do this is for each country to appoint a Digital Champion.

Digital Champions work with citizens, communities and businesses to exploit the growth potential of the digital economy (by helping individuals to enhance their IT skills, by ensuring that the public sector becomes more efficient and customer-friendly and by helping businesses to embrace new technologies which will allow them to be more productive and competitive at home and across borders). They develop initiatives in their own countries to get people more digital. By ensuring regular contact between the Champions, the European Commission provides a platform to discuss and compare action at grass-roots level, and mobilises citizens and businesses to take advantage of the digital economy.