The European Commission has set a tough goal for 2018 of wrapping up legal negotiations on all 25 of the digital single market proposals that it announced since 2015. It will be an uphill battle: there are 13 files still open and fights are simmering over several contentious issues.
One year before the Commission’s current term ends, officials are scrambling to seal agreements on the outstanding legal bills. There are plenty of hard-to-resolve disagreements between national governments and MEPs, running from copyright reform to the so-called ePrivacy regulation.
But the Juncker administration has made the flagship digital single market programme a priority, and is sticking to its 2018 timetable.
“We want to reach the agreements on all digital single market legislative files by the end of the year. At the same time we also look into the problems that have emerged in the recent years such as disinformation online and illegal content on online platforms,” Commission spokeswoman Nathalie Vandystadt said.
The EU executive is still planning to announce a few new tech policy measures this year.
Vandystadt named pending legislation on telecoms, the audiovisual media services directive (which affects broadcasting rules), ePrivacy, cybersecurity, copyright and the free flow of data as “cornerstones” of the now nearly three-year-old digital single market agenda.
A handful of digital files have already been agreed: negotiators wrapped up talks on e-commerce legislation that will make it easier for shoppers to buy online regardless of where they are in the EU, and rules that let consumers use digital subscriptions like Netflix when they travel within the bloc.
That has given consumer groups reason to be optimistic about the digital single market.
“The promise of a digital single market for consumers is something we see materialising in 2018,” said Johannes Kleis, director of communications at the European Consumer Organisation.
But negotiators are still tangled up in tense discussions over some of the most contentious files.
“Every time when the level of harmonisation of the Commission’s initial proposal is watered down even a tiny bit, we are moving away from the original vision of the Juncker Commission,” said Estonian Liberal MEP Kaja Kallas, who authored the Parliament’s report on the digital single market in 2015.
Kallas criticised negotiations over the draft copyright directive. The Commission proposed the bill in September 2016, and MEPs and national diplomats have not yet started three-way discussions on the legislation.
With old policy battles set to rage on and new initiatives expected out soon, EU tech policy will be forced to switch gears in order to meet the Commission’s 2018 deadline.
Tech policy insiders are hoping that the recent increase in manpower at the Commission could speed things up after the year started off with two digital chiefs. Bulgarian Commissioner Mariya Gabriel took office last summer, after her predecessor Günther Oettinger left the role in January 2017. He departed to oversee the EU budget, leaving the digital Commissioner post under Vice-President Andrus Ansip empty for six months.
The Brussels tech policy crowd is also warming up to Bulgaria’s new leadership role after the Balkan country took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU last week.
Estonia made digital policy a focus of its EU Council presidency when it held the role between July and December, and managed to broker a quick agreement between member states on the Commission’s proposal to enable data to move more freely across the EU.
Bulgaria’s Council presidency lacks the explicit digital focus that Estonia put at the centre of many legal negotiations with member states. But the new Council leaders are already under a lot of pressure on tech: the Commission recently published a timeline for this year’s digital policy talks that shifted 13 of the open files over to Bulgaria to broker agreements. If the Commission gets its way, only three bills will remain for Austria to steer through negotiations when it takes on the next Council presidency in July.
Bulgaria said it is aiming to help wrap up the digital single market this year.
“The programme of the Bulgarian presidency recognises the set timeline and reflects the goal to get EU fully geared up to the digital age. We have our efforts focused on continuing and finalising successfully the work of previous presidencies and will spare no effort on this,” a spokeswoman for the Bulgarian Council presidency said.
A Bulgarian presidency official told EURACTIV in December that the country will focus its digital policy work on reaching agreement on a sweeping overhaul of telecoms legislation, which already progressed quickly in discussions led by Estonia last year.
Source: https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/digital-single-market-in-the-hotseat-in-2018/