Beatrice Covassi moves forward to the Delegation of the EU in Washington as the Digital Agenda Counselor, a newly created post which indicates the importance that ICT has today in the Transatlantic marketplace.

On November 9, in Washington, in the context of the session hosted by WIL at the Global Forum, Beatrice will share with us her views on how the EU and the US can work together on building a transatlantic digital market and increasing women’s participation in it.

More, she will be participating in the opening of the Forum, on behalf of Director-general for Information Society and Media Robert Madelin, and she will deliver a keynote speech on ICT for an empowered society at the opening session of the second day.

"I am thrilled to be the first EU Digital Agenda Counselor in DC and I am strongly committed to strengthen EU-US relations on all the pillars of the Digital Agenda. ICT offers powerful means to face some of today's global challenges such as reducing energy consumption, supporting an ageing population, strengthening health services, and delivering better public services”, says Beatrice.

ICT is a hot topic in the political debates, as shown by the relevance of net neutrality and broadband policies on the US side, and the launch of the Digital Agenda by the EU Commission, the first flagship of its 2020 Strategy. Beatrice is expecting that key topics, such as e-Health, are addressed at the highest political level during the EU-US summit in November.

Well acquainted with the US private and public environments, having previously worked as policy analyst specialized in telecom issues for a major US law firm, Beatrice believes that closer EU-US dialogue on ICT matters can trigger a mentality change on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, this would be much needed in areas such as increasing private investments in ICT research and boosting up ICT venture capital.

How about women in ICT? The Commission’s Cyberellas project, which offered to girls the possibility to shadow women with successful careers in ICT, or the recently launched TechWomen Program by Hillary Clinton, are positive examples of initiatives to encourage women to participate as leaders in the new digital economy.

We wish her a successful term in Washington DC!