Artificial intelligence and the data economy will be at the heart of the informal meeting of the EU Member States’ telecommunications ministers on Thursday 15 October. They are also expected to discuss other major European projects, such as the forthcoming legislation on digital services, as well as the outcome of the meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel earlier this week.
On Tuesday 13 October, the two Heads of State stressed the importance of improving cooperation in the development of future technologies. After a meeting also attended by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, they agreed to explore further cooperation in the areas of cloud infrastructure,5G and artificial intelligence and to play a leading role in future important projects of common European interest (IPCEIs) on the cloud and microelectronics.
At their meeting on Thursday, the European telecommunications ministers will be invited to endorse these plans. On the cloud, for example, they will be invited to sign a joint declaration on cooperation to create a European Cloud Computing Federation. Entitled “Building a new generation of cloud for enterprises and the public sector in the EU”, this declaration calls for the deployment of a secure, energy-efficient and interoperable cloud offering in Europe. It is based on four key principles: promoting private and public investment, common rules and standards, an ecosystem of data spaces and simpler access to data spaces.
For the rest, ministers will discuss the future Digital Services Act, to be presented by the Commission in December, and the framework for artificial intelligence, planned for spring 2021. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)