Brussels, 06/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Neelie Kroes from the Netherlands was appointed Commissioner for the Digital Agenda on 27 November 2009, after having been Commissioner for Competition in the first Barroso Commission. During her mandate as Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes' greatest success was overseeing the continued fall in roaming prices, an area of work first began by her predecessor, Viviane Reding. In her sights was the complete disappearance of these tariffs by December 2015. Kroes also launched the “Digital Champion” initiative, which called on each member state to select a digital champion whose mission would be to raise awareness among citizens and the business community about the importance of digital technologies and the Internet. The former Commission's warhorse was also striving to provide Internet access for all and 100% broadband coverage in all member states by 2013.
The former Commissioner adopted a progressive approach by encouraging more women to assume senior positions, particularly in the digital sector. She also highlighted the advantages of cloud computing and was committed to promoting “Big Data”. The most important area of work, however, was launched on 11 September 2013 and involved revision of the “telecoms package”. This package included a raft of legislative provisions to eradicate bottlenecks and barriers preventing the 28 national telecommunications markets in the EU functioning as a single market and subsequently exercising a brake on competitiveness in Europe. It will be up to her successor, Günther Oettinger, from Germany, to pursue, under the supervision of the vice president for the digital single market, Andrus Ansip, the initiatives promoted by Kroes to create the single digital market that is currently struggling to take shape and which involves introducing the “single point of contact” for companies, better spectrum coordination between member states, an open and neutral Internet, deregulation of the telephone landline markets, improved contracts for consumers, with solid safeguards that provide a framework for data protection and private life.
In her final speech, Neelie Kroes, expressed concerns about seeing a timorous Europe take the necessary steps that would help it resume leadership in innovation on the global market. The Commissioner stated “I am worried that Europe will continue to stagnate, that we will look at the success stories but let them pass by”. According to Kroes, a two-speed Europe is taking shape, with on the one hand, innovative start-ups and the creation of new services and on the other, a Europe that is failing to adapt to the digital era. She regretted that perhaps she had sought to move too swiftly and admitted that she had made many mistakes and concluded that if she were the Commissioner for the Digital Agenda again, she would set herself fewer targets. (IL)