This blog is part of a series on three important documents the European Commission (EC) released on February 19, 2020, to outline its digital strategy and policy objectives.

TLDR: What You Need to Know

  • The European Commission released a five-year roadmap entitled “Shaping Europe’s Digital Future”
  • The Commission plans to maximize the benefits of digitization while preserving essential European values of “‘democracy, fairness, and inclusiveness”
  • The roadmap covers a variety of areas, including investment, competition rules, tech education, platform regulation, an industrial strategy, and global cooperation
  • As many as 10 pieces of legislation may result from this roadmap
  • The roadmap includes the White Paper on AI and the Data Strategy, which are currently open for public consultation
  • Both consultations are open until May 31, 2020, and the App Association will be submitting comments. If you are interested in participating, let us know!

This is an extensive strategy that outlines ambitious policies to preserve Europe’s digital role in the global economy. While many of the proposals are still lacking specifics, we are confident that the EC will take targeted actions and develop evidence-based policies. With its strong focus on SMEs, we believe that our members in every EU country will experience benefits from this strategy.

The Context

The Digital Strategy is one of EC President von der Leyen’s flagship initiatives that she promised during her campaign for the presidency. In the context of the ongoing ‘digital sovereignty’ debate in Europe, this strategy can be categorized as an effort to maximize the European Union’s (EU) digital potential and as a response to pressure from member states to regulate platforms and create ‘digital champions’.

Breaking it Down: The Key Objectives of the Digital Strategy

To pursue its own way towards a digital transformation, the EC has set out three main objectives:

  • Technology that works for people: the development, deployment, and uptake of technology that makes a real difference in people’s daily lives.
  • A fair and competitive economy: the creation of a single market in which any company in any sector can compete on a level playing field and in which consumers’ rights are valued.
  • An open, democratic, and sustainable society: a trustworthy environment in which citizens are empowered in how they act and interact, and confident in the security of the data they provide both online and offline.

Technology that works for people

The EC wants to foster innovation, increase cybersecurity, ensure lawful access to data, and build an overall inclusive digital transformation that benefits all Europeans. Overall, the Commission suggests more collaborative initiatives between member states to generate synergies across the EU. Through strategic investments in essential capacities like 5G, 6G, and artificial intelligence (AI), the EC wants to develop trustworthy technologies according to European values. Consistent cyber rules are supposed to function as guidelines and create certainty for businesses. The EC suggests a framework for proactive information sharing to facilitate cooperation between law enforcement and judicial authorities in member states as well as between member states and the EU. EU citizens will benefit from an EC-proposed framework for platform workers’ labour conditions as well as improved technology education and skills. Three concrete action items the EC set out under this objective are:

  • The White Paper on Artificial Intelligence (blog post coming soon)
  • European Cybersecurity Strategy, including a joint Cybersecurity Unit, Review of the Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive, and a single market for cybersecurity
  • Digital Education Action plan, a reinforced Skills Agenda, and a reinforced Youth Guarantee (to be released in Q2 2020)

A Fair and Competitive Economy

The EC emphasizes that, in particular, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) must be able to access digital innovations, tech talent, and financing to fully benefit from the opportunities offered by new technologies. Additionally, for SMEs to thrive in their large European home market, the EC proposes streamlining diverging local or national regulations and creating a single market for data (as laid out in its Data Strategy). The EC also asserts that a competitive European economy must be less dependent on technological solutions created outside the EU. Within the European market, the EC wants to ensure that rules that apply offline also apply online – including competition rules, consumer protection, intellectual property, taxation, and workers’ rights. Three concrete action items the EC set out under this objective are:

  • A European Data Strategy (blog post coming soon), and a legislative framework for data governance (Data Act) (to be released Q2 2020)
  • Ongoing Evaluation and Review of EU Competition Rules (2020 – 2023)
  • Industrial Strategy Package, including an SME strategy (released on March 10, 2020)

An Open, Democratic, And Sustainable Society

The EC again asserts that the same rules on what is illegal must apply offline or online. To this end, the EC plans to develop and implement more rules like the GDPR to create a trustworthy, fair, and accessible-to-all digital society. In such a society, consumers should be empowered to take control of their data using their public electronic identity and access to health services should be increased for all through the creation of digitized health records. For those who hold data, the EC plans to increase accountability and transparency. Lastly, the EC wants to use technologies to implement its Green New Deal and work towards lowering the carbon footprint of the digital sector. Three concrete action items the EC set out under this objective are:

  • Increasing and harmonizing responsibilities such as content policies of platforms and information service providers as part of the Digital Services Act (Q4 2020)
  • A Media and Audio-Visual Action Plan (Q4 2020)
  • A European Democracy Action Plan (Q4 2020)

The International Dimension – Europe as a Global Player

The EC asserts that the EU should continue to advance the European approach via its regulatory power, industrial and technological capabilities as well as through diplomacy and financial instruments. Amongst other things, the EC plans to release a Global Digital Cooperation Strategy (2021) and a Strategy for Standardization (Q3 2020). The EC concludes that the digital transformation needs to work for everyone everywhere in the EU, while at the same time recognizing that everyone needs to participate for it to be successful – including the EU itself, Member States, civil society, and the private sector.

Our Takeaway

Overall, this is an ambitious and extensive strategy to keep Europe a key digital player in the global economy. We appreciate the focus on SMEs and on making opportunities available in every EU country because our members are SMEs in every country of the EU, and they will surely benefit from these efforts. Many of the suggested proposals still lack details, but several of the ideas proposed are promising.  We look forward to seeing the EC support these proposals with targeted actions and encourage member states to do the same. We are confident that the EU will lead to set out evidence-based policies that ensure innovative SMEs can continue to thrive.