By 2030, the share of data stored and processed in Europe, as well as the European share in the data economy, should at least correspond to its economic weight. This is the objective set by the European Commission in its European Data Strategy, according to a draft text seen by EUROPE, which is to be published on 19 February.
The draft text suggests, among other things, a legislative framework on the governance of common data spaces in 2020 and a data act in 2021 to address the relationships between actors.
The document is to accompany a white paper on Artificial Intelligence, whose technologies depend first and foremost on the availability of data (see EUROPE 12415/1, 12413/6). "The aim is to create a Single European Data Space, a true single market for data where personal and confidential data is secure and companies also have easy access to an almost infinite number of high-quality industrial data", it notes. It is based on four strands: regulation, investment, skills and the deployment of sectoral European areas.
Common data spaces
The Commission suggests submitting a legislative framework for the governance of common data spaces in the EU in the third quarter of 2020. Such a framework could, according to the document, include a mechanism for prioritising standardisation activities. It would also define how the data may be used, and by whom, for scientific research purposes. It would also make it easier for individuals to authorise the use, for the public good, of the data they generate, if they wish (data altruism).
At the same time, the Commission intends to encourage the development of common data spaces in strategic economic sectors and areas of public interest such as manufacturing, mobility, health, finance, energy, agriculture and public procurement. In these sectors, the Commission could propose or review sectoral legislation for access and use of data, as in the case of mobility and motor vehicle-type approval legislation.
A data act
As Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has repeatedly stated, the volume of data produced worldwide will increase from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 175 zettabytes in 2025. The value of this data lies in the use and reuse that can be made of it, the document notes.
In this context, the Commission intends to present a data act in the first half of 2021 to regulate the use of public sector information by businesses (G2B) or the sharing of privately held data with other businesses (B2B), in particular by clarifying the rights of use for co-generated data. The Data Act could also refine the rules on intellectual property rights, in particular the Business Secrets Directive, to allow data sharing.
This act could also potentially explore a greater right of portability for users by giving them more control over who can access and use machine-generated data.
Other initiatives announced
The draft document also announces a series of other projects. It announces the adoption by the Commission of an implementing act on high-value datasets (2021) in order to make this data available free of charge in the EU, in a machine-readable format and through application programming interfaces (APIs).
This implementing act will apply to areas such as geospatial, environmental, meteorological, statistical and professional data.
The document also talks about investing €600 million in the European federation of energy-efficient cloud infrastructure and services and investing €1 billion over 7 years to establish interoperable data spaces in key sectors.
It also proposes to launch protocols with Member States on cloud federation (2020) and to launch a marketplace for cloud services for European users (2022).
It should also be noted that the Commission is committed to analysing the importance of data in the digital economy and to review the existing policy framework (such as the regulation on the relationship between platforms and businesses) in the context of the Digital Services Act, expected by the end of 2020. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)