![[COO Blog] José Maria Álvarez-Pallete on ‘Building a Digital Europe’](https://en.blogthinkbig.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/04/european-commission.jpg?resize=610%2C225)
By José María Álvarez-Pallete (@jmalvpal), Chief Operating Officer, Telefónica
2 September 2013: Europe is alive and kicking. That’s the incredibly positive message I took from the StartUp Europe Forum at Campus Party on Monday.
The Forum brought together the leading lights of Europe’s entrepreneur and innovation industries, offering an eclectic mix of policy and debate, analysis and research, as well as opportunities to connect and build networks.
After the day’s events and the enthusiastic ideas expounded by entrepreneurs, policy makers and others, I am convinced Europe’s future is an entrepreneurial, tech-savvy and dynamic one.
In recent years, Europe has taken decisive steps towards fostering entrepreneurial initiatives and surely deserves credit for it. Policy makers are responding to entrepreneurs’ needs. From increasing access to funding, to empowering smooth commercial and technological rollouts across Europe.
The continent now has a healthy startup ecosystem
We are blessed with the most important raw material – entrepreneurs. Now it’s just a matter of connecting the dots to build networks. The aim of our programs is precisely that; connecting Europe through entrepreneurship and innovation.
Telefónica is committed to spearheading this movement with a number of initiatives – including entrepreneurs and educators – to support and build communities. Earlier this year, Telefónica pledged to give support to 1,000 start-ups globally by 2015 through its Wayra Academy and Talentum start-up programmes, build an online community of 300,000 young entrepreneurial Europeans.
Wayra, our start-up incubator, has invested in about 250 businesses and established 13 academies to date, and continues to review hundreds of new businesses every year. Our Talentum Startup programme aims to connect entrepreneurs, to exchange ideas across Europe and to make borders meaningless for our youth and for our startups. And from an educational perspective, Telefónica has committed to teach digital literacy to 50,000 students through our Think Big Schools programme. It is our aim to continue working with accelerators and incubators, with universities and business schools, with other startups as well as with other corporations.
Collectively we must build a vision for a digital Europe
We must work with our political leaders to make this the next big European integration project, on par with the importance of previous ones, such as the single market or the common currency.
The digital agenda is the path to sustainable European leadership and it is our duty to create and leave it as part of our legacy to the next generation of Europeans. This has to be the top priority for the next European Commission and Parliament. We have high expectations for the October European Council, when heads of government will tackle the issues of innovation and the digital agenda.
This continent is full of tech-savvy youngsters. With the right support from political and commercial organisations, we can build on these foundations to establish a fully digitally integrated Europe.
