Brussels, 16/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Council on 24-25 October will mainly focus on the issue of completing the single digital market and promoting innovation, which is recognised as a crucial factor for obtaining sustainable economic growth in the European Union. Heads of state and government will look at the progress made in the field of the Digital Agenda, which seeks to provide guidelines for completing the single digital market by 2015, on the basis of proposals drawn up by the European Commission last September. As pointed out by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on 27 September last, in his letter to member states, “Sustained investments in research and innovation are crucial for economic growth, competitiveness and job creation”.
According to the draft conclusions on 14 October, the European Council will underline the urgent need to proceed to completion of the single telecommunications market and boost digital innovation in all areas of the European economy. Heads of state and government will call for the adoption of an appropriate regulatory framework for: 1) promoting new investment for speeding up the development of new generation infrastructure for bringing new technology on stream (such as 4G); 2) creating a single “cloud computing” market in compliance with security, reliability and data protection imperatives. In the tax field and in the context of revising the system for VAT, the Commission is called on to organised a reflection process on the different points involving the digital economy and VAT rates (different) applied to digital products. The subject will be further thrashed out during the December European Council.
The European Council will also provided support for the telecoms package on the “connected continent” unveiled on 11 September last by the Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, which requires further scrutiny of the text in view of getting it adopted in time (before the European elections of 2014). The aim is to complete the single digital market by 2015. The European Council will recommend, in this perspective, the speeding up of work on all key legislative texts that are currently being examined relating to the Digital Agenda, particularly electronic ID, generic trust and confidence services, e-invoices and electronic payment services, in an effort to ensure that adoption takes place before the next legislature. Initiatives for tackling shortcomings in interoperability and portability will have to be speeded up and the copyright regime adapted to the digital era. In an effort to consolidate consumer and enterprise confidence in digital services, it will be essential, in 2014, to adopt the general regulation on data protection and the information network security directive. Finally, with regard to the modernisation of public administration, the Council is calling for procedures to be speeded up in the fields of e-government, e-health and e-invoicing. The reuse of public sector data is also expected to be proactively promoted.
The Council acknowledged European citizens' lack of digital skills, which are crucial for the labour market. It is therefore recommending a raft of measures to rectify this problem. Structural funds are also expected to be earmarked to underpin education projects on new technologies, early digital skills programmes and the “Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs”. The Commission is also being called on to step up its work on the EU's perspective regarding the skills required for obtaining digital jobs. (IL/transl.fl)