The video underlines the importance of this international cooperation.

Danielle Jacobs, CEO at Beltug (Belgium), explains why this international cooperation is highly important, as 70% from all legislation comes from the EU these days, also on digitisation.
Ronald Verbeek, General Manager at CIO Platform Nederland adds that the 4 countries in this collaboration are pretty much ahead of the digitisation curve. This leads to plenty of valuable insights to share with the European Commission. The regulations they then provide, or the policies they write, can actually have a desirable and profitable effect for companies and business users in general within the EU.
From Cigref (France), Aymeric Bourdin - responsible for European Affairs - sees an opportunity in the cooperation for more accurate positions. For instance in the joint manifesto that informs the new European Commission and Parliament of our member's vision for tomorrow's digital world.
Clarity and transparency are necessary to operate as IT users in a fair and open market, explains Bettina Uhlich, President from VOICE (Germany). In this collaboration, the associations know and trust each other. Experiences and knowhow are shared, and the power is bundled.

On 21 May, the European Council, which brings together the Member States, adopted so-called Council conclusions on the direction of digital policy in the coming years. These set out the course that this European Commission will shape and implement. The main points are almost entirely in line with the points made by the four CIO associations in the manifesto published earlier this year. Read more in this article.

The four priorities from the manifesto are as follows:  

1. Competence: This emphasizes the importance of digital skills and knowledge for individuals and organizations to thrive in the digital world. Among other things, efforts are being made to develop professionals who can handle and develop digital technology and to retain these people for Europe. 
2. Diligence: This refers to handling technology, data, and privacy responsibly. Attention is drawn to the development of new technologies that reduce dependence on non-European economies and to increase our own competitiveness, for example through innovation and the prevention of strategic technology and its producers from falling into non-European hands. This also includes the promotion of fair competition. 
3. Vigilance: The manifesto emphasizes the importance of monitoring digital developments and responding to threats in a timely manner. It includes measures for the safety and security of products, services and processes as well as for sustainability. 
4. Governance: This is about creating an effective and inclusive governance system for the digital world. This includes implementing regulations efficiently rather than adding more new regulations, working towards better cooperation between supervisors in Member States and between Member States, and fairly allocating responsibilities to market participants who have the opportunity to implement them.  

Our 4 associations - Dutch, Belgian, French and German - are CIO associations; communities of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and other senior leaders who are responsible for digital technologies and digital transformations within private or public organisations. These are all business users of digital technologies. They do not represent ICT suppliers and consultants.

Beltug: https://www.beltug.be/
Cigref: https://www.cigref.fr/
CIO Platform Nederland: https://www.cio-platform.nl/
VOICE: https://voice-ev.org/