Between 500 and 1,000 people assembled in Sofia (Bulgaria) on Monday 25 June for the traditional Digital Assembly, which is co-hosted by the Commission and the rotating Presidency of the Council. The first day of the meeting served mainly officially to launch the digital strategy for the countries of the Western Balkans.
At the Western Balkans summit in Sofia on 17 May this year, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia committed to adopt a digital strategy, on the model of that of the EU-28. This strategy was officially launched at the Digital Assembly by the Bulgarian Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, on 25 June.
It is based around four main commitments: investing in broadband connectivity, increasing cyber-security, reinforcing the digital economy and stimulating research and innovation. It includes a roadmap to facilitate reducing the cost of roaming in the region. “Roaming costs are not going to disappear. These are countries that would like to join the EU (…). We wish to prepare them so that they are more in tune with what is going on in the EU”, Commissioner Gabriel explained, in response to a question from a Bulgarian journalist. The strategy also aims to map requirements in terms of digital investments (including broadband) that could be supported via the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF) and the pre-accession aid instrument.
P2B: Commission confident
In addition to the Western Balkans strategy, there were four subject areas on the agenda of the Digital Assembly: the budget, the free movement of data, the electronic communications code and relations between platforms and business.
On the last of these panels, the Commission representative, Gérard de Graaf responded to a contribution from the floor claiming that half the Council had opposed the text. “It is wrong to talk of scepticism; we received broad support for this proposal. There are, admittedly, certain member states, Ireland, that asked questions during the Competitiveness Council. These questions were legitimate and the Commission attempted to answer them”, he replied, adding that he expects the tax to be adopted before the European elections. In any event, the member states should manage a full reading of the text on 5 July, the drafting of compromises will begin in September and “I'm confident that the Council will reach a general approach before the end of November”, he said.
Cyber-security: towards a network of centres of excellence
The Assembly is expected to continue on Tuesday 26 June with, amongst other things, workshops on artificial intelligence and cyber-security. On the latter, it is worth noting that the Commission is expected to present a proposal for a network of national centres of excellence in the fight against cyber-crime “after the summer”. According to our information, this will be based on the model of the proposed regulation in favour of a European super-computer infrastructure (EuroHPC). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)