eco Director of Policy and Law, Oliver Süme, on the new posts in the EU Commission
The new EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has highlighted the Digital theme as a future core topic. His Vice President, Andrus Ansip from Estonia, will be responsible for realizing the digital single market. With this decision, the creation of a common digital single market should become a central intention of the new Commission. In addition to this, there is an EU Commissioner for the “Digital Economy and Society”, Guenther Oettinger (CDU) from Germany.
“eco welcomes the strong weighting of the Digital Economy by the new EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker. The new posts are an important signal that the Internet industry is perceived as a key sector for the entire economy.
This industry already comprises a considerable share of Europe’s value creation; President Juncker has now accommodated the status of this topic and has put the Digital theme at the top of his political agenda. The European Parliament can now decisively shape the network policy in Germany and Europe, setting the course centrally on several points. Three topics should be at the top of the agenda for network policy in Europe:
Firstly, the consistent continuation of the idea of a regulatory framework for a common, harmonized digital single market, which supports market diversity and fair trading conditions and competition. Secondly, the rapid conclusion of a Data Protection Directive which creates a unified level of data protection for the entire area of data processing in Europe. And thirdly, a clear rejection of the re-introduction of blanket data retention.
Oliver Süme
Vice Chair
Director, Policy and Law