The free flow of data and digital unity will be the main priorities of the future Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Estonian Minister for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, Urve Palo, is expected to make this announcement at the Telecommunications Council on Friday 9 June.
In a text published on the Council website, Estonia outlines the events that will be organised during the six months of its presidency. It will hold an informal joint meeting with ministers for telecommunications and competitiveness or 17 and 18 July. This meeting will focus on the free movement of data, as well as emerging questions such as data access and the reuse of non-personal data. It will also be organising two other ministerial meetings: a ministerial meeting of the Eastern Partnership on the Digital Economy on 5 October and a ministerial conference on online governance on 6 October. It should also be pointed out that subject to confirmation, there will be a conference on data protection from 6-8 September, cyber security from 14- 15 September, e-health from 16-18 October, e-justice from 19-20 October and a conference on audiovisual subjects on 27-28 November
The text also highlights several on-going legislative proposals that will particularly occupy the attention of the future Presidency. Tallinn does indeed intend to obtain a general approach and begin inter-institutional negotiations on the directive on the electronic communications code. At the same time, it will attempt to reach a general approach on the regulation for the European electronic communications regulators office. It has also demonstrated its wish to conclude negotiations on cross-border parcel deliveries but has already announced that it will only be presenting a progress report on the protection of personal data. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)