In 2022, two major issues came to the forefront of political communication: On the one hand, the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war of aggression on Ukraine led to numerous geopolitical tensions, inflation and impending recession in Germany. These generated important political topics and new issues – such as Germany as a digital location, energy independence, security – all of which were accompanied by eco in terms of communication.

In addition, national digital policy was a particular focal point of the new German traffic light coalition government in its first year: for example, after long exploratory talks, the federal government published its Digital Strategy, which was analysed, evaluated and commented on by eco. Other programmes that eco commented on in media communications included the Digital Pact 2.0, the Gigabit Strategy, the Future Strategy for Education and Research, the Digitalisation Strategy for Healthcare, and an international Digital Strategy.

The topic of digital infrastructures has been one of eco’s primary communication points for many years, with this further intensified after eco founded the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany in 2018. While the topic had already received a great deal of attention due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine crisis and the looming energy crisis meant that the media got to intensively discuss the absolute importance of digital services and high-performance digital infrastructures. In 2022, eco was able to have many of the Alliance’s core messages – also relating to the first draft of the Energy Efficiency Act – placed in leading media, with these messages also resonating with the political target group.

Furthermore, as in previous years, eco organised a very successful press information tour in the run-up to the Digital Summit in Berlin in December 2022, with this summit led by the German Federal Ministries for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and for Digital and Transport (BMDV). Under the label of the Alliance for the Strengthening of Digital Infrastructures in Germany, the three-hour tour offered media representatives and political guests the opportunity to experience the topics and issues discussed at the Digital Summit in a vivid and tangible way, based on innovative projects and industry solutions.