Brussels, 04/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The digital strategy for Europe will be at the core of telecommunications ministers' discussions on 6 June at the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in Luxembourg (6,7 and 10 June). The Council will be chaired by the Irish minister for communications, energy and natural resources, Pat Rabbitte. The European Commission will be represented by Digital Strategy Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
The session will not be overburdened and will include several progress reports that will be presented to ministers, in addition to two discussions, exclusively to allow the member states to set out their points of view. The first and more important debate will focus on the digital strategy, and the role played by the telecommunications and ICT sectors in Europe. The European Commission is due to present a legislative package on the Digital Strategy in October, as Commissioner Neelie Kroes revealed to the European Parliament last week (see EUROPE 10856). Since measures have not yet been adopted, member states will simply present their broad positions on completing the single digital market, planned for 2015, and what is to be done to achieve this aim, particularly in the area of harmonisation and radio electric spectrum, stated a source close to the Council. Discussions will also help to clarify member states' positions ahead of the October European Council, which will focus on innovation and the digital strategy. Delegations will set out their respective positions on whether there is a need to adopt European rules on cyber-security, as proposed by the Commission, or whether a more voluntary approach is more appropriate. The usefulness of setting higher protection standards that in other regions of the world will also be discussed.
The Council will also take note of four progress reports on other legislative proposals, namely: 1) measures for ensuring a high level of network and information security in the Union (draft directive), complementing the debate on the same subject; 2) electronic identification and trust services for e-business inside the internal market (draft regulation); 3) digital infrastructure and services (two draft regulations); 4) public sector body website access (draft directive). In the context of electronic identification, the Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers has reached agreement on several principles and the dossier will be passed on to the following Presidency (Lithuania). (IL/transl.fl)