The heads of state or government of the EU Member States discussed the main digital issues at the European Council on Friday 22 October.
Thus, in addition to stressing the importance of working on digital skills and education, the European Council also called for “a rapid review” of the ‘Digital Compass’ (see EUROPE 12791/14), as part of the way forward for the digital decade.
In terms of future interinstitutional negotiations, EU leaders have stated their desire to see an agreement reached on the Roaming Regulation “by the end of the year” (see EUROPE 12816/6).
The European Council also wants agreements to be reached “as soon as possible” on the two major texts, the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 12810/17) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (see EUROPE 12814/9).
“The regulation of content platforms implies that we know how to move on to larger platforms and give the Commission an additional role to avoid the endless debate between countries of origin and destination”, commented French President Emmanuel Macron.
Furthermore, EU leaders stressed the need to work on fair access to data and to establish specific sectoral data spaces.
Finally, artificial intelligence (AI), digital identity and cybersecurity were also discussed.
In the field of AI (see EUROPE 12812/2), the European Council recalled the need to create a regulatory framework “in order to accelerate the uptake of this technology by both the private and public sector while ensuring safety and the full respect of fundamental rights”.
“We need legislation that is open to innovation. This applies to data policy, data strategy, artificial intelligence, digital services”, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
On cybersecurity, the importance of combating cyber threats was also highlighted. In this sense, the European Council conclusions call for the further development of the EU’s crisis management framework. This could be done in particular via the Joint Cyber Unit initiative (see EUROPE 12815/8).
“These conclusions, I believe, once again set a course, a compass, to enable operational progress on these important issues for innovation, for employment, for cybersecurity, for the issue of data, for fundamental principles”, said the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
Although there were a large number of items on the digital agenda, the time allocated to the subject was limited due to the other important dossiers to be dealt with. “The limited amount of time over the entire summit devoted to the digital issue does not reflect the magnitude and importance of this issue”, Mr Michel summarised.
See the conclusions: https://bit.ly/3psyyOX (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin with the editorial staff)