The Blog of the European Association for Digital Transition
On December 15, the European Commission presented its regulatory proposal on a single market for digital services (known as the Digital Services Act), a common set of rules on intermediaries’ obligations and accountability across the digital single market.
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When the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications back in 2017, it probably had no idea of the conflict to come. Better known as the ePrivacy Directive, the proposed legislation simply aims to update protections of the fundamental right of EU citizens to privacy and confidentiality when using public communications networks. And it’s finally due to come into effect on 21 December.
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The European Union has finalized a draft of its new Digital Services Act (DSA), which, according to all indications, will place restrictions on and control more closely the activity of large technology companies. There is even talk of forcing them to share their data with smaller companies and prohibiting them from applying any kind of preferential treatment for their products on their own platforms. All this is in the midst of a growing debate, also in the United States, about the excessive size and power of these companies and the possibility of forcing them to be split up to restore competition in the markets where they abuse their dominance.
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It’s been 12 years since Bitcoin was born, and with it the phenomenon of cryptocurrencies, digital assets not issued by any central authority and transacted through blockchain technology. In these 12 years, Bitcoin has experienced dramatic swings in value, becoming established as a high-risk speculative item – in the last 12 months it has been revalued by 20% – but not as a commonly used currency.
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Europe has sealed an historic agreement, reached after five days of negotiations. The 27 have launched a huge financial package to drive the post-COVID economic recovery and have set the budgetary roadmap until 2027 for modernisation of the continental economy. This is historic as it provides a quick response to bounce back after the blow taken from the pandemic, and historic for the huge amount of funds mobilised now and for coming years.
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From the beginning of its mandate in December 2019, the new European Commission has been showing strong leadership in Digital Transition. Proof of this is publication of the European Strategy for Data, which has recently been submitted for public consultation.
The European Association for Digital Transition welcomes the Commission’s proposal. Nevertheless, we have provided our observations, detailing our position regarding the proposed benchmarks.
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The challenges of the digital transition are complex and encompass all types of areas: from the defence of democratic values to purely legal matters, without forgetting free competition, defence against cyber-terrorism or data protection. Consequently, several European institutions are responsible, to a greater or lesser extent, for designing a proactive European response, without falling behind the United States and China and maintaining the standards that have made the European Union a tool for progress for more than 440 million citizens.
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On February 19, 2020, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, fulfilled one of the promises she made when taking her position: to publish a White Paper on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the first 100 days of her mandate. With this text, open for public consultation until May 19, 2020, the European Union clarifies its general outlines to face one of the greatest challenges of our time: To get the best possible results from Artificial Intelligence without leaving anyone behind or harming liberties and civil rights.
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