News
Big Data: EU regulation looming?
The European Commission has said that it wants to understand Big Data better before thinking about regulating it. One of the key questions to be addressed is 'who owns the data', which it hopes would improve trust in digital technologies. Businesses do see the advantage of Big Data, but as of now are reluctant to release their databases to others, without having a clearer picture of how they will be able to benefit from it. The Commission explores whether these concerns can be addressed through existing rules, before looking into 'micro-managing' companies.
Commission work programme 2015: Focus on Digital Single Market
The new European Commission’s work programme for 2015 clusters around 10 long-term priorities, including ‘an ambitious Digital Single Market (DSM) Package’. As part of its 'DSM' Strategy, the COM aims at concluding ongoing proposals such as the data protection reform and the regulation on a Connected Continent. New initiatives include the following areas: telecommunications regulation, EU legislation on copyright, audiovisual media services, consumer rights for digital/online purchases, e-commerce, and cyber security. The only concrete legislative proposal so far, however, concerns the ‘modernisation of copyright’ (see Annex I). It is common practice that the EP comments on the Work Programme by adopting a resolution. Yet, it failed to do so this time, mainly due to political bickering. Whereas united in their shock at the Commission's planned withdrawal of waste and air pollution legislation, they could not agree on a common resolution. However, even if the resolution had passed, the Commission would not have been bound by it.
Data retention: ECJ judgment creates legislative patchwork across the EU
The landmark decision by the European Court of Justice to annul the data retention directive threatens to lead to a legislative patchwork across Member States. Whereas the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said that he had no plans to draft new rules, other countries were reluctant towards a legislative void in the field and took action. Sweden’s telecom regulator took action against its telecom operator for breach of national law after the latter stopped storing data. The UK introduced emergency legislation, Finland included provisions on data retention into new law, and Germany seems more and more inclined to draft new law as well.
European ccTLD Brief (April 2015)
CENTR has published its latest CENTRnews magazine (14th edition). This month features:
- 'ccTLDs: Time to speak up on IANA' by Giovanni Seppia, Chair of CENTR's Board of Directors
- EU Policy Update - special extended edition!
- Q&A with Elisabeth Ekstrand and Danko Jevtović, new CENTR Board members
- Recent CENTR workshops and upcoming events
- ccTLD news highlights and statistics
New structure of the European Commission
With his new structure for the ‘College of Commissioners’, President Juncker ended the era of ‘1 commissioner - 1 Directorate General (DG)’. Now the 28 ‘team members’ are split into 1 President, 7 Vice-Presidents organised around particular policy areas (including the High-Representative for foreign affairs), and 20 Commissioners in charge of certain portfolios. Decisions are to be taken collectively, generally by consensus, otherwise by simple majority. Practically, law proposals evolve around a unit in a particular DG and are drafted by one or more individuals (desk/policy officers) from where it is sent into the hierarchical abyss (head of unit, head of directorate, cabinet, director general, Cabinet of Commissioners, Commissioners, inter-service consultations, College). Time will show how the Commissioners (the ones with an ‘infantry’, i.e. the DG and its staff) and the Vice-Presidents (the ‘trusted Juncker circle’, only equipped with their Cabinet) will work together. The relevant points of contact for the CENTR community are: Vice-President Andrus Ansip, Estonia, responsible for the Digital Single Market and Commissioner Günther Oettinger, Germany, responsible for Digital Economy & Society.
Priorities of the Latvian EU Presidency
The EU is under the official 'reign' of Latvia until 30 June 2015, when the baton will be passed on to Luxembourg. Under its rotating schedule, Member States take turns in leading the work of the Council of the EU, one of the seven EU institutions. Each Presidency sets its priorities, to a certain extent in consultation with the previous and subsequent Presidency ('Trio Presidency'). For Latvia three areas are of key importance: 1) EU competitiveness and growth; 2) using Europe's digital potential to boost smart, sustainable and inclusive growth for the EU; and 3) strengthening the EU's role as a global actor. The main topics under priority 2 are: cyber security strategy, NIS Directive, Telecoms Package, Digital Single Market and e-government.
Regulating platforms? Commission wants to reach common understanding
The issue of regulating platforms, even though it might not (yet) be part of the new Digital Single Market Strategy, is not yet off the table. The Commission wants to reach a common understanding of the 'common denominator' among platforms, such as Facebook, Google, eBay or Spotify. In 2014, the EP put forward a (non-binding) resolution that suggested 'unbundling' search engines, such as Google, in a bid to reduce their market power.
Transparency Register: Don’t forget to update your profile!
The Joint Transparency Register of the European Commission (COM) and European Parliament (EP) is a scrutiny and accountability instrument. Its objective is to make it more transparent with which organisations and individuals these European institutions interact, what their interests are and what budgets they dedicate to their lobbying activities. In January 2015, the COM and EP announced some updates to the register. Therefore, if your organisation has already made or is considering making an entry in the EU transparency, you will be required to make some updates or to provide more information than before. Registration is voluntary, yet comes with a couple of benefits. It not only shows that your organisation engages in transparency, in some cases it will also be a necessary requirement to get access to certain representatives of the EU institutions and to some extent facilitates entry into their buildings.
Zooming in on Digital Agenda Commissioner Oettinger
Mr Oettinger started his career as Commissioner responsible for energy under the previous Commission. Largely criticised for his lack of expertise in the field, lack of English language skills and perhaps lack of devotion, the assessment of his performance was rather good. No one, however, trusted him to quickly adapt to issues related to the digital sphere. However, he did his homework and passed the famous 'grilling' of Commissioner candidates by MEPs.
DENIC takes stand on the future of Internet Governance
DENIC, has prepared in collaboration with the German government and other German interest groups a position paper with recommendations for action for the future stewardship of the so-called IANA functions. Central guidelines of this paper are a clear advocacy of the multistakeholder model, maintaining the security, stability and resilience of the Domain Name System, and upholding the openness, decentralization and interoperability of the global Internet. The German government and DENIC further explicitly support in the paper that rules on country-code Top-Level Domains – in particular including .de – continue to be made solely within the respective country in accordance with relevant national rules and legislation. For all further details, you are kindly referred to the official Press Release.