Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1534

Contents

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/694 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 establishing the Digital Europe Programme and repealing Decision (EU) 2015/2240^note, and in particular Article 16(3), first paragraph, and Article 23(2),Whereas:

(1)Pursuant to Article 16(3) of Regulation (EU) 2021/694, the Commission is to select the entities forming an initial network of European Digital Innovation Hubs.

(2)In order to select the European Digital Innovation Hubs forming the initial network based on the list of candidate entities designated by Member States, the Commission opened two calls for proposals and evaluated the submitted proposals with the support of an independent board of experts. The first call (DIGITAL-2021-EDIH-01-INITIAL) opened on 17 November 2021 and closed on 22 February 2022 and the second call (DIGITAL-2022-EDIH-03) opened on 29 September 2022 and closed on 16 November 2022. In both evaluations, the Commission took the utmost account of the opinion of each Member State before selecting European Digital Innovation Hubs in the territory of that Member State.

(3)The Commission retained 136 proposals from the first call and 15 proposals from the second call.

(4)In order to enable a Member State to finance more European Digital Innovation Hubs in its territory, European Digital Innovation Hubs which have successfully passed all evaluation thresholds, but which could not be funded due to a lack of budget available for the relevant calls in the work programme, should be awarded the Seal of Excellence in accordance with Article 23(2) of Regulation (EU) 2021/694.

(5)The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Digital Europe Programme Coordination Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: