 We are delighted to be joined today by Mr Anthony Whelan, Mr Whelan is the Digital Policy Advisor to the new President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He advises the President on a range of issues linked to the digital economy, the digital single market, for example, research, innovation and competition. So a very broad range of topical issues. We're very happy you were able to join us today. Thank you for coming. President von der Leyen has emphasised the importance of two transitions for Europe's development over the next five years. The first is the transition to greener Europe and the second one, which we're going to be focusing on today, is the transition to a more digital economy and society. She said she wants Europe to be fit for the digital age, so I might start by asking you what this actually means in practice and put simply how can this be achieved? Thanks Claire. It's a very big question and in a way it's two words that characterise it. The digital and the green change is a transformation but we need a transition to get there. A transformation because the opportunities in this area are so huge for us. We should not think pessimistically about the role of digital in Europe. We see digital services making life much easier, making medical services more efficient and more effective, making mobility easier over time. We also see it as an area where Europe has enormous strengths in industrial areas, for example, in automotive, in health devices, in things you don't see very often such as low-power computing chips. Part of the transformation is to make sure that in these fields where we are strong, we complete the digitisation, but we invest in the future productivity of our businesses in the skills of our workers because our workers must not be left behind. And the transition is in part about ensuring that as the economy changes, as the economic models change, that those who may be taking the brunt of it, workers in certain industries for example, that they get the skills they need to move into new opportunities. And on one level you have been fit for this transition. The other phrase that has been floated by President von der Leyen is, Europe becoming technologically sovereign, which seems to be the next step up. And what does she envisage by Europe becoming technologically sovereign? This is again a positive agenda. It is not defined against anyone, it is defined for us and for Europeans. And by that we mean not just the EU in Brussels, we talk about Europe and its member states, citizens, its regions. What it means is that we should actually have the capacities in Europe, the ecosystems, the skills, the research centres, the high performance computing centres that will drive future AI and data analytics, that we have these necessary infrastructures and tools for our very bright people, our innovative startups and SMEs as well as big industrial companies to complete the transformation and to be able to draw on those capacities, not just as regards security, which is of course very important, but as regards the building and the maintenance of prosperity and our social and economic model. And touching on that, what role will a more coherent EU industrial strategy play in achieving some of the objectives you have just spoken about? Well here the EU added value is in bringing together the efforts of our member states and of our companies. Sometimes it is the seed funding from the EU research funds or from the future digital Europe programme in deployment areas like cloud computing, supercomputing, cyber security, that can attract the public funds of the member states and then much more private finance from industry so that you get a scale that is not going to happen in the private sector on its own or even in our biggest member states. And in key value chains that I've already mentioned like cyber security, like the chip sector, like mobility, this scale is necessary because of the investment challenges ahead. And just to finish then on the challenges, Europe is sometimes thought of as a bit of a laggard when it comes to digital economy, research etc. What are the main challenges that President von der Leyen and the rest of the EU face in achieving some of the ambitious objectives you mentioned? We can't underestimate that there are problems that need to be addressed. We have a level of investment in research and development in digital and more generally which is not enough to keep pace. We see in the overall prominence of digital in the economy that there are not many leading European players if you look at things like market valuation. On the other hand we have an awful lot of strengths. If you take a new area like artificial intelligence, the amount of academic publication from Europe beats that of other regions. So we have things to build on. If we take 5G communications, more than 50% of the patents are held by European companies and researchers. Or if we take what is sometimes called the oil of the digital economy, namely data, the amount of data being collected is increasing almost exponentially. So what has happened in the past is in the past, but this is growing so enormously that there is still lots of scope for Europe to become a digital and data hub for the future economy. So a solid platform to build on in the future. Mr Riehen, it's been a pleasure. Thank you very much. Thank you.