Digital Agenda, a portfolio designed on Matteo Renzi’s Italy

The difficult negotiations aimed to creating the next European Commission include a portfolio that suits Matteo Renzi’s Italy to a T. A portfolio full of contents, which points to the future thanks to its own nature, post-scrapping for years already (Renzi’s nickname is “The Scrapper”), playing a crucial role for the future of European growth even though it is not “delicate” and politically sensible as others are. We are talking about the Digital Agenda: innovation, ICT, the Internet. It seems it was tailor-made on Renzi’s “politica nova” (new politics

The position offers an incredible visibility (the current Commissioner, the Dutch Neelie Kroes, will be forever connected with the cut to roaming costs, for instance), but also important contents, with crucial challenges for the economic growth of Italy and the entire Europe. No one is running to grab that office, everyone is trying to get “traditional” portfolios, very important for sure but where it is not possible “to make a difference” as Renzi would like to, and as he would never have done with the capable but too fragile Federica Mogherini as High Representative. The position connected to the Agenda allow its Commissioner to talk free from (too many) diplomatic ties, to say – without anyone being able to protest – that “we are falling behind and there’s much more to do, and we’ll do it connecting the entire Union in order to make it work as a single, efficient and productive mechanism supporting growth and occupation.” That is the place to make “good populist politics” but also to be significant in deciding developing lines.

That Commissioner (which could and should be a Vice President too, as it is with Kroes) is involved in all the development policies conceived by the Union in the future, playing the main role in the 300-billion euro projects announced by Jean-Claude Juncker, to be launched within February; it is also involved in the policies concerning climate change, cyber-security, cultural heritage safeguarding, electronic medicine, IT literacy for young people (that is, education, one of the main points of Renzi’s programme) and of course mobile, telephone and Internet markets, as well as everything it will be possible to include. For instance, Galileo, the satellite navigation system managed by Antonio Tajani first and by Ferdinando Nelli Feroci nowadays.

A strategic position, and if Italy asked for it no one could deny the possibility of an Italian Commissioner for the Digital Agenda: all the other ‘big States’ have already made their choices (actually, they made and officialise them well before Italy, by the way). This is a battle Renzi and Gozi can do. They can win it too.