Brussels, 11/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Digital Economy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger will not take the same approach with French car sharing service BlaBlaCar as with US-headquartered Uber service which allows cars with drivers to be reserved. That is what he stated following a meeting with German Transport and Digital Infrastructure Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Monday 11 January.
“BlaBlaCar is not profit-driven, unlike Uber, which is a commercial service provider in direct competition with taxis. It allows costs to be shared, as happened when I was a student, and provides good conversation”, the German commissioner said, when asked by a journalist about his meeting a few days earlier with the head of BlaBlaCar.
The meeting with Dobrindt focused on the digital single market strategy and on the development of broadband internet networks in Germany (5G, European Fund for Strategic Investment, spectrum, etc.). The minister was accompanied by member of Netzallianz, a network, made up of public and private sector representatives, active in digitisation. Dobrindt announced that the industry had pledged to invest €8 billion in broadband in 2016 and that the German Federal Government would also provide €2.7 billion. Berlin is looking to make broadband internet access available across the whole of the country by 2018.
At the press conference, Oettinger declined to comment on the Polish media law, indicating that the college of commissioners would hold a policy debate on Wednesday 13 January. He acknowledged, however, that his private office had received from Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro a letter on the new law, which he promised to “read this evening”. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)