Slated to be held in Lisbon, the 2020 Web Summit began on Wednesday with an address from the President of the European Commission setting out her view for a "digital decade" in Europe, with tech taking the lead – but also taking responsibility. 

Instead of thousands of attendees and speakers cramming into a conference hall and breaking out to smaller discussion rooms as usual, this year's Summit is being held entirely online. Arguably fitting for one of the world's biggest tech and online-focused gatherings. 

Ursula Von der Leyen linked tech and the ongoing pandemic directly. She spoke just hours after UK regulators gave the go-ahead for Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine to be rolled out in the country. 

"I learned this in my previous life, when I studied to become a medical doctor. Technology saves lives," she said from her office in Brussels. It was not just a speech on the heights of medical technology, though. Von der Leyen showed she understood how household (and even handheld) innovations had improved Europeans' quality of life during the lockdowns. 

"We saw years' worth of innovation in just a few weeks. People who had never even ordered a pizza online have got used to all sorts of online services," she remarked.

And it's clear the economic value of that innovation is at the forefront of EU thinking. 

Borrowing from the language of tech evangelists, Von der Leyen described the pandemic as an "accelerator" that had prompted the doubling in value of many European tech firms in 2020. 

"In the last five years, the value of European tech companies has quadrupled," she said. 

She finished the opening address with a reminder of the Commission's Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, which are the bloc's new tools aimed at greater control over online giants such as Google and Amazon. 

While Von der Leyen indicated she recognized the importance of tech and e-commerce to the European economy, she signaled her hopes for a major step-change in the way social media for example operates – with more "responsibility" alongside innovation. 

"Platforms cannot be the new Leviathan," the EU leader warned.

_{Cover image credit: Ingram/VCG}