Günther Oettinger, the digital commissioner for the EU, has called for a single market for digital services in Europe as a way to compete with Asia and the US.
Speaking at a broadband conference in Germany, Oettinger called for national borders to be lifted to strengthen the digital competitiveness of European companies.
Frequency allocations and copyright commonality were examples Oettinger cited, according to Broadband News, saying that any single digital market would need to be respected by both European and foreign companies operating in EU countries.
However, a stumbling block may be the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice on the Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner case.
By empowering data protection authorities across the EU, it could frustrate attempts to create this one, common set of rules for the managing and transferring of all things digital.
This is big business, too, with a hefty valuation of €415bn attributed to a successful implementation of the cross-border plan. We looked in detail at the plan here.
During the summer, the European Commission, led by Oettinger, presented its digital strategy, which will “reinforce our digital authority… give us digital sovereignty… and make us competitive globally”.
This is the second plan this decade that has aimed at creating a unionised approach to the digital economy.
Main image via Shutterstock
