Brussels, 03/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU will seek to reach political agreement in December on the European Commission's Connected Continent proposal, which aims to create a genuine single digital market, so that trialogue negotiations can begin with the European Parliament.
Italy said that this is an “absolute priority”. At the most recent Telecoms Council in June, the Greek Presidency tied to reconcile the different points of view of member states, with the publication of a progress report and proposals for smoothing out the differences (see EUROPE 11096).
Italy considers that confidence in the digital economy is an essential condition for the effective functioning of the single digital market and it intends to speed up negotiations on the security of network infrastructure and push forward in discussions on the draft directive on access to internet sites and public sector bodies. A debate will also begin on developing a stable and transparent environment for the investments required in infrastructure and digital networks, without which the digital economy cannot function. The Italian Presidency supports the “Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs” and will also encourage debate on developing digital skills in early childhood in school curricula. Given the key role played by public administration, Italy will also continue reflection regarding policies relating to the awarding of online public procurement contracts, which allow the economy to stimulate investment by European companies. It will also seek to promote the development of cross-border online public services with, in particular, the creation of interoperable European platforms such as a common framework for managing systems for electronically identifying citizens.
The Italian Presidency will look at the rapidly expanding phenomenon of cloud computing, big data and open data in the context of public sector modernisation, in order to reduce operating costs and promote the global competitiveness of European digital companies. (IL)