Lawyer Antonio Tejeda Encinas President of the Euro-American Digital Law Committee; CEO META Channel Corp
Introduction: The Relevance of Reports in Digital Transformation
In recent years, governments and international institutions have published various key reports to guide technological, economic and social development. Documents such as Spain 2050 (May 2021), Digital Spain 2025 (July 2020), Agenda 2030 (September 2015), the Letta Report (2023) and the Draghi Report (2024) seek to offer a roadmap to transform Spain and the European Union in the face of future challenges. Although these reports set ambitious goals, they have a significant gap: they do not detail how to concretely adopt the emerging technologies that are essential for the change they propose. While in areas such as sustainability or education the objectives are clearer, when it comes to digitalization and technological implementation there is a worrying lack of specificity.
The 2030 Agenda, approved by the United Nations in 2015, has been a reference framework for the sustainable development goals – SDGs – in many countries, including Spain. Within this plan, digitalization is highlighted as a key tool to advance in areas such as education, work and sustainability. However, like other reports, the 2030 Agenda lacks a clear strategy on how to adopt emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain or quantum computing in key sectors. Although the need to close the digital divide is recognized, a specific roadmap to guide its practical implementation is missing.
The Spain 2050 Report, presented in May 2021 by Sánchez, was conceived as a long-term roadmap to transform the Spanish economy and society. Although it addresses relevant topics such as digitalization, its general and long-term approach has diminished its impact on public debate. Like its predecessor, Digital Spain 2025, the report mentions emerging technologies, but does not delve into their effective adoption. This lack of specificity limits its relevance in a context where technological acceleration requires more immediate responses.
The Letta Report (2023) focused on the cohesion of the European single market, removing internal regulatory barriers. While it has been successful from a technical and regulatory perspective, it has received criticism for its lack of vision on technology adoption. Although it mentions digitalization as a key component, it superficially addresses technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and advanced automation, without offering clear guidance for their large-scale adoption in Europe.
Draghi Report: A Correct Diagnosis, but without an Action Plan
The Draghi Report (2024), commissioned by the European Commission, set out to confront challenges such as European competitiveness against the United States and China. Despite mentioning the need to invest in advanced technologies such as 5G, 6G networks and artificial intelligence, the report has been criticized for its lack of detail as to how such technologies will be implemented. Although 800 billion euros are allocated annually for the set of proposals, a clear breakdown is not offered on how these funds will be distributed, especially among specific sectors or technologies. The absence of a concrete action plan has weakened this report, limiting itself to diagnosing the problems without offering clear solutions.
A recurring criticism of these reports is that, although they recognize the importance of digital transformation, they do not address in sufficient depth the integration of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing or 5G and 6G networks. These technologies are leading innovation in key sectors such as health, education and finance, and their lack of specificity in the reports makes them more aspirational documents than true action plans, in a lack of concrete proposals for technological adoption.
For these reports to be truly useful, they need to include detailed action plans on how to integrate emerging technologies into strategic sectors. Only with precise planning and adequate implementation can we guarantee that Europe and Spain maintain their competitiveness in the digital age.
