Political Communication

In 2023, two major assessments were made in political communication: After a year into the German Digital Strategy, at the end of August eco gave the German federal government a very poor report card. According to the eco analysis, the inadequate coordination and the perceptible diffusion of responsibility within the federal government caused Germany’s sluggish digitalisation. And, in November, after approximately two years of the German traffic light coalition, eco also drew a mixed balance in the press regarding digital policy progress.

In the year under review, it also became increasingly clear that European legislation is becoming more and more important for companies in the digital economy. A large portion of key decisions in the field of digitalisation are now being made at the EU level. In 2023, the complex legislative process surrounding the AI Act was closely accompanied communicatively by eco.

For many years, the topic of digital infrastructures has been one of eco’s primary communication points, especially since eco founded the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany in 2018. Press work in 2023 was primarily characterised by two main topics: firstly, the developments surrounding the Energy Efficiency Act; and, secondly, the call from the data centre industry to relieve energy-intensive companies such as data centre operators from sharply rising electricity prices.

As in previous years, in November 2023, together with the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, eco also organised a successful press information tour on behalf of the German Federal Ministries for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and Digital and Transport (BMDV). This accompanied the Digital Summit in Jena under the motto of “Digital Transformation at a Turning Point. Sustainable. Resilient. Future-orientated”.

Political representatives such as Dr. Anna Christmann, Benjamin Brake and Benjamin Koppe, as well as media representatives, experienced three exciting stops that demonstrated the implementation of digital innovations and their connection to sustainability and innovation aspects.

The tour generated a positive media response and was well integrated into the summit’s framework programme. Pictures of the tour can be found in our Flickr gallery.