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The EU Failing to Deliver on its Ambition to Create a Digital Single Market

Yesterday’s proposals for a European Data Economy fall far short of the ambition to create a Digital Single Market.

In March 2015 the EU Commission embarked on an ambitious plan to boost innovation and growth in Europe’s digital economy by creating a Digital Single Market. However yesterday’s package of proposals on the European Data Economy fall a long way short from that ambition. Overall the DSM has been a missed opportunity to drive positive change and instead has put more barriers in the way of Europe’s most promising digital businesses.

Yesterday’s proposals for a “Free Flow of Data Initiative” do little to actually free up data flows across Europe. The European Commission has rowed back from its commitment to take legislative action to end inappropriate, misplaced and unjustified data localisation restrictions that prevent businesses from deploying more cost effective data infrastructures across Europe. This is despite its own Impact Assessment that concluded that removing these restrictions would add €8 billion to the European economy every year.

Instead the European Commission is merely announcing a further consultation on data localisation, while proposing new legal concepts and policy measures on data ownership, access, reuse, and liability, and the creation of a new data producers right which digital business see little justification for. The very businesses who are supposed to benefit from these proposals have consistently argued these issues are better addressed through business contracts and see little merit in additional one size fits all regulation. The European Commission has repeatedly failed to present convincing evidence of a market problem that needs to be fixed. Many data-driven businesses are concerned that these proposals will stunt Europe’s digital ambitions rather than help them to scale, grow and flourish in Europe.

“European politicians keep asking why Europe doesn’t have a major competitor to the big global internet companies and then they put more barriers in the way to that ever happening” said Antony Walker, deputy CEO techUK. “European Member States need to think hard about whether the proposals released yesterday will help then grow their digital economies. Unfortunately, Brexit won’t shield UK businesses from the negative impact of these proposals. All businesses exporting goods into the EU post-Brexit will need to be compliant.”

“EU Member States need to wake up to the fact that the European Commission is getting the Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy wrong and consider the impact of these proposals, and others such as the Copyright proposals and the proposed E-Privacy Regulation on their ambitions to grow their economies in a digital age. Unfortunately the DSM has effectively been an exercise in levelling up regulation rather than in re-thinking what effective and appropriate regulation should look like in a digital age. This is a missed opportunity for Europe.”

>>See also techUK's response to the specific Free Flow of Data Initiative Communication 

 

Channel website: http://www.techuk.org/

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