Brussels, 05/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has set six specific objectives in its strategy for a single European market, which it will present in the month of May.
In a draft document of which EUROPE has had sight, the European institution takes stock of the not particularly brilliant progress made in the digital economy, identifies major obstacles to the creation of a fully functional single digital market and lists the factors which will allow consumers and businesses to take full advantage of this digital market.
The six objectives laid down by the Commission are as follows: 1) building confidence: the key to the success of online activities is to build confidence. Consumers and businesses need guarantees that their online data and activities are secure; 2) removing restrictions: access to online goods and services must be guaranteed, irrespective of the nationality of the consumer, their place of residence or location; 3) ensuring access and connectivity: promoting the integration of the market, competition and investments to give households access to broadband at reasonable prices; 4) building the digital economy: access providers and the industry in general must be supported, and not hindered, when they offer digital goods and services. Tax procedures in particular must be simplified; 5) promoting “e-society”: citizens and businesses need to be able to have access to online solutions in all areas of everyday life. Public administrations must provide online access to their information; 6) reinforcing digital innovation and research: investing in technological research and high-tech innovation to boost growth and jobs.
In order to achieve these objectives, the barriers to the creation of the single digital market must be removed. In its document, the Commission identifies the major obstacles to this digital market: 1) lack of consumer confidence in the networks and lack of security of the online environment: 59% of consumers are not worried about buying buy online from a supplier located in the country of residence. This confidence level falls to 35% for suppliers in another member state. The fragmentation of the legal rules (particularly as regards guarantees and penalties), the gaps in the rules in favour of consumers and the lack of protection from fraudulent online operations are behind this lack of trust; 2) lack of measures to fight cybercrime: 80% of citizens are concerned by security when carrying out online operations, compared to 75% in 2013 (Eurobarometer survey). The member states must work together to fight cybercrime, as soon as possible; 3) too much regulatory fragmentation prevents businesses from offering their goods and services beyond national borders; 4) obsolete commercial models: designed to function “off-line”, the current commercial models need to be reviewed and replaced with new, more flexible ones, which are adapted to the online environment; 5) disparate legal frameworks for online intermediaries: the member states all implemented the 'e-commerce' directive of 2000 differently, leading to uncertainty for online intermediaries, access providers and rights holders; 6) geographical restrictions preventing an online good or service from being provided across national borders: these restrictions are due to a number of factors (different VAT procedures, restrictions on the portability of content, diversity of consumer protection rules); 7) different and cumbersome taxation procedures: VAT rates which differ depending on whether the good or service is carried out in the country of origin, another EU country or in a third country; 8) disparities in the tax burden: companies operating online only, without a physical presence in a member state, give rise to different tax treatment, which distorts the competition rules; 9) Fragmentation of the telecoms market: the framework needs to be more coherent, more stable, more transparent, more competitive and more harmonised; 10) online supply of goods and services is too expensive and interoperability is lacking between the various operators: open standards and improved interoperability of the systems is vital for the deployment of innovative services.
Lastly, the Commission highlights the change factors which will help to speed up the creation of a functioning single digital market: 1) providing better access to funding for digital companies: the differing national regulatory regimes are an obstacle to access to funding from one country to the next and this must be remedied; 2) improving the digital skills of entrepreneurs, employees and consumers: currently, more than 40% of adults lack basic skills and more than 70% of them need more training on digital matters. More than 900,000 extra jobs could be created if the number of qualified employees was high enough; 3) allowing businesses and citizens to interact effectively with public services within a clear and transparent framework; 4) establishing fair competition rules for online activities; 5) stimulating research and development in the digital sector: Europe lags behind in this area compared to investments made by the Americans and the Asians; 6) promoting the conditions required for digital and online education: not enough higher education establishments use new teaching models based on online technologies, yet these would make a real difference to improving the education systems in the European Union. (Isabelle Lamberty)