The European Commission has published its Special Eurobarometer on the Digital Decade 2026, revealing the results of a survey conducted between February and March 2026 on thoughts about AI, technology, safety, and digital.
Key findings include that public confidence in EU digital rights protection has risen “significantly” since 2025, with 51 percent now believing their rights are protected well, compared with 44 percent in the previous survey.
Around 40 percent of citizens report using generative AI tools “at least weekly”, with 69 percent of existing users saying their usage has increased over the last year. Barriers to increased use are identified as privacy or data protection concerns (39 percent) and concerns around accuracy or incorrect information (36 percent).
79 percent of citizens consider digital policy should be either “high” or “very high” priority for the EU in shaping Europe’s future, and the most important focuses for the next decade should be on protecting privacy and security online (92 percent) and making digital tools more accessible for everyone (89 percent).
85 percent of citizens support the idea of investment being made in European-developed and controlled digital infrastructure, and 74 percent believe a priority should be supporting EU companies to develop European-owned AI tools. 80 percent favour the careful regulation of AI, compared with 15 percent who favour development without restrictions.
Specific to health, 55 percent of Europeans indicate digital health technologies as the technology expected to have the most positive impact over the next ten years, above green digital tech (50 percent) and faster internet connectivity (42 percent). 79 percent also note their support for the development of shared digital public services like digital identities and eHealth.
Wider trend: Digital health tech and regulation
For a recent session focusing on AI in healthcare, HTN was joined by an expert panel including Simon Brown, head of digital at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Wahida Jabarzai, clinical AI and automation delivery lead at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and University Hospitals of Leicester; and Julian Wiggins, healthcare solution director at Rackspace Technology. Our panel considered the wider challenge of AI adoption, looking at what makes a successful deployment, introducing AI safely and sustainably at scale, and some of the use cases currently delivering value across their organisations.
The MHRA has published findings from the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare research, pointing to the need to balance a desire to use AI in improving patient care and supporting healthcare professionals, with “safe, fast and trusted” regulation. Almost three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) disagreed or strongly disagreed that the current regulatory framework is sufficient to ensure safety and performance standards; with 61 percent disagreeing or strongly disagreeing with its effectiveness in tackling data governance and data privacy. 61 percent also think current requirements for clinical evidence are insufficient, and 65 percent pointed to a need for more to be done on post-market surveillance.
The MHRA also launched a consultation on its proposals to extend existing transitional arrangements and continue to recognise medical devices approved in the EU “indefinitely”. The proposals put forward look to support the extension of measures put in place in 2023 to recognise CE marked medical devices on the British market to 2030, in a move the MHRA states is aimed at protecting patient access and ensuring continued supply of “safe and effective” medical technologies. “Around 90 percent of medical devices currently used in Great Britain are CE marked, and the proposals for indefinite recognition would ensure consistent long-term supply to support the health system,” the MHRA reports.
