Digital Competences and Digital Skills in the Legal Regulation of the Digital Transformation of the European Union

In the digital transformation process, the phases focusing on technical and economic aspects were followed by a phase exposing human capital issues. In approximately 3,000 acts of the European Union relating to the digital transformation process published in Eur-lex, as well as in an increasing number of national acts of the Member States, the terms “digital competences” and “digital skills” appear. They occur, inter alia, in the context of the financing of development tasks and their achievement indicators. In the application of existing law, it must be taken into account that the scopes and interrelationships of these new terms are framed differently. This ambiguity may have a negative impact on the effectiveness of digital transformation. It is postulated that the terminological consistency of the multi-level regulation should be improved and, in doing so, it should be noted that the prominence of digital skills in prospective acts and the way in which knowledge is captured can affect the use of the potential of universities.