EU-ROK Industry Stakeholders Roundtable in connection to the 2nd EU-ROK Digital Partnership Council Meeting

EU-ROK Industry Stakeholders Roundtable in connection to the 2nd EU-ROK Digital Partnership Council Meeting

About the Event

The event is intended to be held alongside the 2nd Digital Partnerships Council Meeting scheduled in Brussels on 26th March 2024. The main goal of this workshop is to bring together representatives of different stakeholders (industry, investors, representatives from the government, academia, and other relevant institutions) to cover all the EU-ROK Digital Partnerships’ areas of emerging technologies and discuss collaboration and investment opportunities, current international challenges and provide recommendations for possible follow-up. In connection, proposals for concrete actions shall be agreed upon to boost the cooperation, reinforcing peer learning and sharing of knowledge. The event will therefore serve to present and discuss concrete cases and initiate discussions on how to cooperate to operationalize the decisions taken, considering further deepening the cooperation between the EU and Republic of Korea.

Background
The European Commission’s 2030 Digital Compass Communication calls upon the EU to promote a human-centric digital agenda on the global stage and to form international Partnerships for the Digital Decade with like-minded partners. In addition, the Joint Communication of 01 December 2021 on the Global Gateway presents the EU’s investment strategy for connectivity infrastructure including in the digital sector.
The Republic of Korea (ROK)-EU Summit conclusions of 30 June 2020 called for strengthening bilateral cooperation in responding to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and harnessing human-centric digitalisation. In a Leaders’ meeting between the ROK and the EU on 29 June 2022, it was agreed that both sides would expand the scope of bilateral cooperation by accelerating work towards a Digital Partnership covering a range of topics and technologies such as: Semiconductors, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Beyond 5G/6G, High Performance Computing (HPC) and Quantum Technologies, Online & Digital Platform Cooperation, Cybersecurity and Trust, Skills, Mobility, Digital inclusion, Collaborative Research, Digital Trade, Data related Laws and Systems, Digital Identity and Trust Services.
Both sides have established close links through a Strategic Partnership based on the revised Framework Agreement, the ROK-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and long-standing cooperation in the digital as well as in the research policy sphere in line with the Agreement on the Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the European Community and the Government of the Republic of Korea (the S&T Agreement – 2006).
Both sides share the ambition to improve the functioning of the global digital economy and intend to work jointly in a pro-active manner building on respective bilateral and multilateral work in various fora such as the G20, OECD, and WTO.