The digital single market is one of the priorities of the new Maltese presidency of the Council of the European Union. In its work programme, Malta pledges to pursue talks on geographical blocking, roaming fees, connectivity, high frequencies and cross-border portability.
In its seven-page work programme, the new Maltese Presidency says that if we collectively manage to take full advantage of the single market, we will provide tangible benefits to our economies, companies and families while scrapping barriers to trade and improving protection and access to services for consumers. There is plenty of work to be done in this regard. Last year, the European Commission unveiled on average one item of draft legislation per month to honour its digital single agenda.
Full steam ahead
The dossiers where the most progress has been made are clearly those relating to high frequencies, cross-border portability, the scrapping of roaming charges, unjustified geographical blockage and audio-visual services. Over the next six months, the Maltese Presidency will be responsible for formalising the inter-institutional agreement reached by its predecessor (the Slovak Presidency) on reorganising the 700 MHz bandwidth (see EUROPE 11690).
It will also pursue talks with the European Parliament on the draft regulation on cross-border portability of online content services to allow subscribers to online content to continue to access the products they’re subscribed to or that they’ve bought even when travelling in another EU member state (see EUROPE 11678).
The presidency will need to reach agreement with Parliament on wholesale prices. Regulation 2015/2120 foresees the end of charges properly invoiced by telephone operators for trips to other member states from June 2017 onwards (retail roaming) (see EUROPE 11688) and rules for wholesale prices are a crucial precondition for this.
On the question of geographical blocking, the Council – which adopted its general approach on 28 November 2016 – is awaiting the European Parliament’s negotiating position, but Parliament has only just published a draft report (see EUROPE 11696). Parliament’s committee is expected to express its views on the review of the audio-visual media services directive on 24 January (see EUROPE 11558).
The Maltese Presidency may manage to achieve a general approach to the cross-border delivery of parcels (see EUROPE 11558), as revealed by the provisional timeline for the Competitiveness Council of 9 June. On that day, a progress report is expected from the Council on the electronic communications code (see EUROPE 11610), the locating of data and protection of privacy.
Challenges to be addressed
The dossiers where the least progress has been made include revision of copyright rules. The European Commission unveiled a directive on copyright in September (see EUROPE 11624) and a draft regulation to extend measures from the cable and satellite directive to online rebroadcasts. The first item of draft legislation, which changes the exemptions to copyright and establishes a similar law for press editors, has thus far only been discussed at the Council. The second has not yet been formally discussed at all, although a number of member states are already clearly opposing it.
Another tricky subject is online purchasing. The Council has already discussed this a number of times, but the co-rapporteurs in Parliament - Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D, Germany) from the single market and consumer protection committee (IMCO) and Axel Voss (EPP, Germany) from the legal affairs committee (JURI) – are finding it difficult to get organised on the question of the supply of digital content (music streamed by YouTube, for instance) or the online sale of tangible products (such as buying clothes online).
The new Maltese Presidency will begin talks to adjust the value-added tax system (VAT) for companies doing business online. It will also take on board the future proposals on protection of privacy, expected on 11 January (see EUROPE 11692) and the free circulation of data (see EUROPE 11681), for which a communication is expected in January and a draft regulation in June.
Future meetings
Three formal meetings of the Council are scheduled in Brussels in the first six months of the year on questions relating to the digital single market, namely 20 February, 29-30 May and 9 Jun. An informal meeting will be held in Malta on 6 April. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)