Margrethe Vestager, European Commission Vice-President for a Europe fit for the digital age, had a very brief discussion with members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on Thursday 31 March on the future Data Act (see EUROPE 12896/13).
“The time has come to discuss what is needed online. All the work on digital strategy and governance is essential”, said Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D, Finland).
She said her political group believed future work should focus, among other things, on interoperability and the end of monopolies in the field of ‘cloud’ services, among others.
“The Data Act is the missing piece of the puzzle. We already have the governance, with the texts on digital markets (see EUROPE 12919/12) and digital services (see EUROPE 12913/20) and I think that this will allow us to break the monopolies on data”, said Ms Vestager.
For others, like French MEP Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe), the issue of “free ‘cloud’ credits offered by companies’, making users “captive to these services”, should also be addressed.
“Several companies have been questioned and we will look into the matter”, Margrethe Vestager summarised. She concluded by saying: “The different legislations must work together”. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)