Press release: Visegrad 4 Conference on Digital Transformation

Slovak Liaison Office for Research and Development in Brussels (SLORD) in collaboration with the partners from V4 countries (CZELO, PolSCA, Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU) and the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU organize the international V4 Conference on Digital Transformation.

The conference will take place on 6th of June 2019 at the premises of the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU in Brussels as one of the closing events during the Slovak Presidency of the Visegrad Group, a political and cultural alliance of four Central European states.

The digital transformation and the integration of digital technologies into all areas of society and economy is the most recent challenge that the European Union is facing, and the Visegrad Group region is no exception.

Digital transformation means a strategic, planned and organizational change – this change calls for the development of appropriate policies, regulations and various instruments to support this process while keeping it in within the limits we consider necessary. The Visegrad countries as the members of the Union are contributing to the commitment of establishing the Digital Single Market and want to ensure that citizens and private companies fully benefit from the digital transformation.

The aim of the event is to bring together distinguished experts, professionals, researchers and practitioners from various areas, which have been directly confronted with the uptake and real applications of digital transformation.

The programme structure of the event will compose of the keynote speech delivered by Khalil Rouhana, Deputy Director-General at the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission and two main parts in the form of panel discussions. The first panel of the EU policy representatives and OECD will focus on different policy initiatives at the European level and their interaction within the next MFF (2021-2027). The second part will present concrete examples from the Visegrad group countries, both from practitioner’s and governmental perspectives, that confirm the continuous interest of the Visegrad region to be an active player in ongoing processes proper to the digital transformation at the EU level. In a closing speech, Fabio Pianesi from EIT Digital will summarize the main messages of the conference and present the EIT Digital innovation agenda.

The conference will be attended by up to 120 participants covering Member State and Associate Country delegations (attachés); representatives of the European institutions; GSC; CoR; national ministries / offices; IGLO members; associations and other stakeholders.

The main deliverables and conclusions of the conference will be distributed to a wide audience for further discussion and awareness-raising.