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Subject: (AE) DIGITAL: New raft of measures for digitalisation industry

Brussels, 06/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's non-legislative package seen by EUROPE, seeks to help industry, researchers and public authorities take full advantage of new technology.

It consists of four communications and three working documents and will finally be unveiled on Monday 18 April, given the currently heavy workload, although it was initially programmed for Wednesday 6 April.

During a conference organised by DigitalEurope on Tuesday 5 April, Commissioner Andrus Ansip stated, "The European Commission wants to make industry as digital as possible". The Commissioner provided a preview of the proposals he intends to elaborate and added "We want to encourage innovation in new domains of growth: the data economy, the Internet of things and high-performance cloud computing. We want to stimulate innovation in traditionally strong European sectors such as engineering, health, and logistics. We also want to promote common technical standards and online administrative services".

The draft package is centred around four communications on the following themes: a European digital business leadership strategy; the creation of a European research cloud; the development of common standards in priority areas such as 5G in mobile telephony and an online administration action plan.

European digital business leadership strategy

Tackling market fragmentation. The communication heading calls for better coordination and improved integration of national level digitalisation for industry. The Commission points out that, "Any delay in this domain would lead to massive GDP losses to the EU of more than €600 billion a year by 2020, in comparison to an unchanged situation".

In practice, it is proposing to organise high-level roundtable talks twice a year, which bring together representatives from member states, industry and social partners, in addition to a European Forum for stakeholders once a year. It is also committed to producing a report to the Competitiveness Council on the progress accomplished. Three legislative initiatives are expected: an initiative on the free movement of data in the EU (in view of getting rid of unfair localisation criteria introduced in national legislation); clarification of the notion of ownership, access and the reuse of data, particularly with regard to industrial data; and revision of the legislative framework governing autonomous systems and applications relating to the Internet of things (in particular, rules on security and responsibility), accompanied by a reflection into the legal conditions that will allow for more broad ranging tests in real conditions.

€50 billion strategy. The text particularly calls for getting more partners on board and increasing resources. According to the Commission, equal effort must be made by the public and private sectors. The Commission explains that "The actions proposed in the communication will require around €50 billion over the next five years, of which a third should come from the public sector". It is receiving €35 billion from the Horizon 2020 programme, the Cosme programme and public and private sources for the 5 billion in regional investments for innovation poles and 10 billion from co-investments in primary production capacities.

The document highlights the added value of public-private partnerships (PPP) that are expected to include inter-sectoral technological projects. The draft text also explains that "The private sector should invest at least four times more than the EU in the PPP". It is also encouraging the development of enterprise groups to stimulate innovation. In this connection, the Commission is committed to mobilising €500 million from the Horizon 2020 Research Framework Programme in an effort to support the development of regional digital innovation polls over the next five years. Its initiative will emphasise network development, cross-border collaboration, the sharing of best practices, involving the regions that do not have digital innovation poles yet and improving the way in which public procurement contracts are awarded.

Creating a European research cloud

The communication accompanying the working document on high yield computing and quantic technologies seeks to facilitate the exchange and storage of large-scale scientific data. The draft text identifies several barriers to the digital revolution including the limited sharing of data, lack of interoperability, digital infrastructure fragmentation and the demand for high-quality global computing infrastructure.

The Commission is therefore developing two kinds of responses to these difficulties: the creation of a European cloud that will initially at least provide scientific services ("European open science cloud"), and the development of infrastructure adapted to this objective by way of high-performance computing resources. The future European cloud is expected to provide a virtual space to "1.7 million researchers and 70 million professionals working in the field of science and technology, to store, manage, analyse and reuse research data". In practice, the Commission intends to work with member states and stakeholders to facilitate data sharing. It also intends, unless required otherwise, to make all scientific data produced in the context of Horizon 2020, "open by default" as from 2017. It will also develop specifications for interoperability and data sharing between business sectors and set up a European governance body for linking scientific data bodies. With regard to infrastructure requirements, the Commission has set itself a deadline of 2020 for establishing the European framework and releasing quantic technological potential, a crucial tool in this domain. It estimates that €4.7 billion will be necessary for creating European data infrastructure (3 billion for very powerful computers, 1 billion for the quantic technologies flagship initiative and 700 million for cloud access-related action).

Prioritising ICT standards in digital single market

The communication on standardisation accompanying the working document on the Internet of things, seeks to establish common standards in five areas judged to be priorities (5G, cloud computing, the Internet of things, mega data and cyber security). The objective is to allow systems, devices and networks "speak to one another" and for data to circulate without hindrance. In this perspective, the Commission has announced the presentation by the end of 2017 of a recommendation to ensure that security and private life criteria are taken into account during the development of supranational standards. It is also proposing to promote a European/international digitalisation area for the development of connecting things and to support a "fair and flexible" intellectual property system for essential patents. Five flagship projects are also expected to be launched in the domain of future markets. This initiative is expected to have an impact on emerging sectors such as e-Health, autonomous and connected vehicles, as well as Smart energy.

Online administration action plan (2016-20)

Operating as a "coordination tool", an action plan will encourage online administration the public authorities to make their data available and stimulate the development of cross-border services. Unsurprisingly, it will include the "once only" principle according to which, individuals and companies will only have to provide the same information once to the administrative authorities. It also adds, however, the principle that all services will be online "by default".

The communication will be based on six key principles: the primacy of the user; reliability and security; inclusion and access; interoperability; openness and transparency; and the culture of innovation. It will have four working areas and for each of these areas it sets out a specific target. (1) Regarding the introduction of information and communication technologies in public administration, the Commission would like 65% of information already available to be reused publicly rather than requested again by 2020. (2) On the subject of connectivity, the Commission would like online cross-border administrative services to equal those provided by national services by 2020. (3) With regard to contact between administrative services and third parties, the Commission would like transparency in the operations carried out by the public administrations, procedures for providing services and personal data access to involve 70% of services (as opposed to the current 56%). (4) In 2018, citizens and enterprises should be able to access administrative services an outside national borders online.

To achieve these targets, the Commission will produce a citizen's charter in the digital era by 2017. This will elaborate the principles to follow for the public administrative services working with citizens. It will also work on a raft of measures to speed up the use and take up by users of reliable e-services. It will also set up a, "management committee for the online administration action plan" in an effort to assess progress and rethink additional measures. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)