Brussels, 05/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 6 May, European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip will present the EU's single digital market strategy, one of the Juncker Commission's ten priorities. The aim is to create an area where individuals and companies can benefit from all the opportunities provided by digital technologies, despite the fact that the market is still very fragmented. The document the Commission is expected to adopt outlines the measures to take to create this digital single market. It contains a roadmap for the different stages the member states will have to go through to promote the digital single market.
The orientation debate at the College of Commissioners on 25 March helped to define the three main action areas: 1) improve access to digital goods and services throughout Europe for consumers and companies; 2) create an appropriate environment and conditions for fair competition so that the digital networks and innovative services can develop; 3) optimise the growth potential of the digital economy (see EUROPE 11282). Vice President Ansip promised an ambitious reform whilst admitting that carrying out the objectives would be “a difficult task”.
Increasing numbers of Europeans use the Internet to make purchases, study, work or complete administrative formalities. The number of small companies seeking to develop their activities and extend them to other European countries is growing. Unfortunately, they are all encountering a large number of obstacles as varied as disparate legislation on consumer rights, high port costs for articles ordered abroad or the lack of interoperability in online services. The Commission is determined to remove these obstacles and defined three areas in which it will focus its action during its mandate. Firstly, the freedoms underpinning the EU single market also have to apply to the digital arena. This means ensuring Europeans can access online services and use them throughout Europe and that companies can sell more easily in other EU countries than their own. Secondly, it is also necessary to set out appropriate rules and conditions for all market actors, irrespective of whether they have been active for a long time or are new market entrants. Thirdly, an examination is required into questions involving data, skills and common standards. All the different industrial sectors should have the possibility of integrating new technologies such as “Big Data” or “Cloud Computing” and should also be able to succeed in the transition to a smart industrial system. Europeans would subsequently be able to benefit from all the advantages of interoperable online services ranging from online administration to online health, as well as improving their digital skills as a means of increasing their chances of finding a job.
Start-ups want innovation to be at heart of digital strategy
On Monday 4 May, a coalition of 15 start-ups from 13 member states (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal, Netherlands, Slovakia and Poland) wrote to Andrus Ansip requesting that he put “start-ups” and innovation at the centre of the digital strategy. Guy Levin, one of the co-signatories of the letter, from the Coadec company, said: “It is vital for the future success of the European digital economy that political decision-makers listen to those who are innovating and put start-ups at the centre of the digital single market”.
Some commentators think that this letter has come rather late. It was sent under the auspices of the international Allied for Start-Ups network and is urging the Commission to reduce the bureaucratic burden on young entrepreneurs, “too often digital comp anies struggle to grow in Europe and make the leap westwards to the US in search of a large market, uniform regulations, a more positive culture towards risk and easier access to finance. 28 sets of regulatory requirements present a barrier even to big players and can be insurmountable for start-ups…We need to make one-stop shop systems work so that start-ups only have to deal with one regulator or tax authority”. The start-ups are calling for single procedures for: registering Internet domain names, starting up a business, paying taxes, employing personnel and managing shares.
Start-ups are also calling for maximum caution to be exercised when introducing additional regulation to oversee each area of technology. They explain that “for innovative and evolving companies to emerge and thrive in Europe it is key to avoid imposing strict horizontal regulation that may apply differently to each start-up and place further burdens on entrepreneurs seeking to scale up within Europe”. (Isabelle Lamberty)