In 2024, the Letta and Draghi reports were published; two documents that represented the climax of the break with the approach Europe had adopted in the past years. These reports highlighted its lag in innovation and competitiveness. The newly elected European Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, took these reports as a roadmap to a more prosperous Europe, ushering in a new era focused on regulatory simplification and boosting competitiveness.
2025 stands as a year of action in which to realise these aspirations and achieve a digital, decarbonised, competitive and resilient Europe that asserts itself as a global leader. To this end, the European Commission has published its “Competitiveness Compass“; a strategy to guide its actions over the next five years around three cardinal points: closing the innovation gap, the joint strategy for decarbonisation and competitiveness, and increasing security and reducing excessive dependencies.
In this context, public policies play a key role in navigating the challenges and providing effective solutions that promote competitiveness, innovation and the sustainability and inclusion of societies in the 21st century economy.
Telefónica, as a leading player in the telecommunications sector and a provider of connectivity and digital solutions, wants to contribute with its experience and knowledge to the design of effective public policies that address current challenges to build a better future.
The challenge of competitiveness to secure future welfare
The telecommunications sector is a strategic pillar for enhancing competitiveness, fostering innovation, and promoting well-being, while also strengthening the resilience and inclusivity of societies in a global economy driven by digital technologies. Its investments are crucial to establishing the foundations of a competitive digital economy: high-quality, secure, and resilient connectivity.
However, the sector is hindered by outdated policies and uneven competitive conditions, resulting from regulatory frameworks that fail to address the current dynamics of the digital ecosystem, thereby impacting its capacity to invest.
To strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and unleash its full potential, it is essential to create an environment that ensures the sustainability of its investments. This involves enabling operators to achieve the necessary scale in their relevant markets to ensure the profitability of their investments through consolidation; promoting a spectrum policy aligned with digital objectives; removing and simplifying regulatory barriers to network deployment and sector transformation; and restoring balance in the digital value chain, through horizontal frameworks that eliminate sectoral approaches and fostering a fair relationship between actors in the internet value chain
Access the Playbook if you want to know more about the public policies that contribute to boosting Competitiveness.
The challenge of accelerated technological innovation
We live in an era of unprecedented digital disruption, where the convergence of technology, economy and society requires constant adaptation and effective management to ensure that technological progress benefits all.
To harness innovation, countries need to strengthen their digital capabilities and infrastructure, and the telecommunications sector is central to this process. The continued transformation of the sector has enabled the provision next-generation, secure and resilient networks to societies, enabling advanced digital experiences and innovative use cases across all sectors, and the development of transformative technologies such as AI, IoT, cybersecurity and cloud computing, which are key drivers of progress.
However, the irruption of new technologies, which are shaping a new digital paradigm, makes it particularly relevant to reflect on how to promote innovation while protecting citizens’ rights and welfare. From a public policy perspective, the challenge will be to balance the drive for innovation with appropriate regulation, while promoting international cooperation to ensure governance that facilitates technological development on the basis harmonised principles.
Access the Playbook if you want to know more about the public policies that contribute to boosting Technological Innovation.
The challenge of ensuring a balance between economic growth, sustainability and inclusion
Sustainability and inclusion are fundamental to a resilient and prosperous future that requires a balanced development of the planet and the well-being of people. In the digital era, the telecoms sector plays a key role in bridging digital divides and fostering more sustainable societies, through the deployment of efficient networks such as fibre and 5G, along with its digital solutions.
From a public policy perspective, environmental and climate challenges have prompted some countries to resort to regulation as a way to tackle this pressing issue. However, over-regulation has increased reporting obligations and overlooked private sector initiatives aligned with European goals, resulting in higher costs and diminished interest from investors and entrepreneurs. Consequently, the vital connection between sustainability and competitiveness has been weakened—an essential link that must be rebuilt now more than ever.
Another challenge is digital inclusion. Continuous technological evolution, enabled by connectivity, makes innovations available to society that contribute to improving people’s quality of life. However, not everyone can access them. Therefore, it is crucial to promote an inclusive digital environment that ensures the benefits of digitalization reach everyone, while also promoting awareness and training initiatives to create a safer digital space, especially for the most vulnerable segments of the population, such as minors.
Access the Playbook, if you want to learn more about public policies that contribute to advancing Sustainability and Inclusion.
Telefónica’s contribution to the digital public policy debates
Through the Playbook, Telefónica is introducing a new document format that not only aims to provide policy recommendations to policy makers and regulators to address the challenges of competitiveness, technological innovation, sustainability and inclusion, but also to share our vision with society at large.
Our purpose is to facilitate understanding of digital policy debates and to raise awareness of the impact these measures can have on economic and social development in the digital age.
Come and explore our vision of the digital debates covered in the Playbook.
