Brussels, 11 March 2015
158th MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS BUREAU
– 18 MARCH 2015 –
ITEM 4
DEBATE "INVESTING IN CONNECTING EUROPE:
THE DIGITAL AGENDA AS A KEY TERRITORIAL ELEMENT"
Submitted by the secretary-general
FOR DEBATE
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EN
INTRODUCTORY BRIEFING FOR CoR BUREAU MEMBERS
158th MEETING OF THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS BUREAU
– 18 March 2015 –
Item 4
Debate "Investing in Connecting Europe: The Digital Agenda as a key territorial element"
1.
Digital Agenda for Europe and the Digital Single Market
Digital technology is expected to be one of the main drivers in the next decade for delivering
economic growth and creating new jobs. The Commission has also outlined in its Digital Agenda
for Europe two primary objectives in support of Digital technologies: by 2020, all EU citizens should
have access to broadband speeds above 30 Mbps and 50% of the population should subscribe to
access speeds above 100 Mbps.
Despite a relatively high level of implementation of EU actions and the adoption of numerous
legislative initiatives in the past 5 years, the Digital Single Market remains fragmented into
28 national markets, and the EU continues to lag behind its main international competitors. Data of
the new Digital Economy and Society Index1 clearly show that the picture of how digital countries are
varies across the EU and that borders remain an obstacle to a fully-fledged Digital Single Market.
The new European Commission recognised these shortcomings and the potential of the internet
economy to help Europe recover from the crisis, and so placed completion of the Digital Single
Market high on its agenda to the extent that there is now a dedicated project team of
13 Commissioners. In its 2015 Work Programme, the Commission outlined its intentions to
conclude work on key pending proposals and table new legislative and non-legislative initiatives in
this promising but challenging policy field, however to what extent tangible results will be achieved
remains to be seen.
The Digital Agenda for Europe and the Digital Single Market will also be among the key priorities of
the new "Investment Plan for Europe", both for infrastructure investments and for supporting hightech SMEs.
2.
Priority of the Latvian EU Presidency
"Digital Europe" is one of the three overarching priorities of the Latvian Presidency of the Council of
the EU. The Latvian government has the ambition to work in particular on the issues of data
protection, the telecommunications market package and the Digital Single Market strategy.
1
http://digital-agenda-data.eu/datasets/desi/visualizations
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The main topics on the Latvian presidency agenda are:
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building a stronger and more coherent data protection framework – seek agreement on the
General Data Protection Regulation and Directive;
enhancing cybersecurity – implement the EU Cyber Security Strategy, finalise negotiations on the
Network and Information Security Directive (NIS);
facilitating initial discussions on the Digital Single Market strategy – eliminate online borders,
build trust and confidence, remove restrictions, ensure access and connectivity, build the digital
economy;
seeking an overall compromise on the Telecommunications market package – find a balance
between high-quality services and a reasonable cost for consumers;
becoming digital by default – advance the digitalisation of Europe, discuss digital skills, promote
e-Government.
Several digital pioneering projects have been developed recently, supported by the Latvian
government and organisations such as the Latvian Open Technology Association (LATA) and the
Latvian Communications and Information Technologies Association (LIKTA). Inspiring examples are
the Riga Tech Hub, supporting technology start-ups, and the Riga IT Demo Centre, hosted by the
National Library of Latvia2.
In the Digital Economy and Society Index Latvia currently ranks 18th out of the 28 Member States,
with high scores on Next Generation Access and the use of internet, and lower scores in the number of
ICT specialists, the integration of digital technologies by businesses and digital public services.
3.
Regional and local impact of the EU digital strategy
The digitisation of the European economy and society is a policy domain with a significant impact on
regions and cities.
In its recent consultative work, as well as during various political and expert meetings, the European
Committee of the Regions has underlined the territorial importance of broadband connections, of
high-tech entrepreneurship and SMEs, of supporting smart cities (linking the digital agenda with local
transport and energy strategies), etc. An overview of recently adopted CoR opinions:
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2
Digital Agenda (rapporteur: Markku Markkula);
Trans-European Telecommunication Networks (rapporteur: Alin Nica);
Cloud Computing (rapporteur: Gabor Bihary);
Cybersecurity Strategy (rapporteur: Robert Bright);
European single market for electronic communications (rapporteur: Frank Zimmermann);
CoR Bureau members are invited to visit this Demo Centre in the margins of the meeting (situated on the 1st floor of the
National Library)
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3.1
Measures to support the creation of high-tech start-up ecosystems (rapporteur: Markku
Markkula);
Internet Policy and Governance (rapporteur: Odeta Žerlauskienė);
Interconnected Europe: ICT Sector as a Source of Growth (rapporteur: Anne Karjalainen);
Interoperability as a means for modernising the public sector (rapporteur: Odeta Žerlauskienė).
With regard to digital infrastructures, ICT investment has so far had the highest correlation
with growth: 10% more households connected to high-speed broadband can generate up to
1.5% higher GDP and 20 million extra jobs by 2020. Today investment gaps can be observed
at two levels: first, for broadband networks, the pace of investment is lagging behind the
need, notably for high-speed networks in less densely populated regions, where the return to
investors from subscriptions is lower than needed to justify the investments. Secondly,
investments are needed for a number of programmes that act on the demand side and
stimulate use of the infrastructure: smart cities and communities, key enabling technologies
(KETs) and open data all rely on digital infrastructure.
Questions for debate:
 What could be the role of regions and cities - and the role of the CoR - in the process of
creating more ultra-speed broadband infrastructure and closing the Internet access gap?
 What to expect from the Investment Plan for Europe? How to get new funding for digital
infrastructure projects at local/regional level? How to guarantee investments in deprived
areas with less commercial return?
3.2
In the field of cyber security and data protection the European Commission aims to create a
fair level playing field where all companies offering their goods or services in the European
Union are subject to the same data protection and consumer rules. Cyber security is a key
issue in achieving higher protection levels against cyber-attacks against public and corporate
databases or utility infrastructures, traffic control etc. The upcoming Network and
Information Security Directive (NIS) will have a major impact on public authorities at all
levels of government and their digital strategies.
Questions for debate:
 What could the role of the CoR be in terms of modernising European data protection
rules and the future of the EU data protection reform?
 How can the regions benefit from the new NIS legislation in fighting cyber-threats and
protecting public and private data bases?
 How to safeguard the EU principles of data protection in a globalising digital market and
the ongoing TTIP negotiations?
3.3
With regard to consumer rights many topics are currently a source of political debate: rules
for e-commerce, roaming, international copyright protection, etc. The principles of a
European Digital Single Market are to be matched with commercial and cultural interests at
national or local level. The European Commission wants to ensure that consumers can access
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content and services on their electronic devices wherever they are in Europe and regardless of
borders, i.e. without roaming charges. The Commission also plans to modernise copyright
rules in the light of the digital revolution and changed consumer behaviour and simplify
consumer rules for online and digital purchases.
Questions for debate:
 What actions would be advisable at regional level to help modernise consumer rules for
digital purchases and ensure that consumers are equally well protected online and
offline?
 What action could be taken for adapting the copyright regime to the digital era:
replacement of national rules with a unitary EU copyright law or undertaking smaller
reforms conducive to innovation and productivity growth by, for instance, harmonising
national laws or simplifying online licensing across the EU?
3.4
With regard to the digitisation of society big regional disparities can be observed in Europe
in terms of digital skills, e-government, the share of digital start-ups and SMEs, etc. ICT is to
become an integral and horizontal part of all economic activities, and is to be better integrated
in education, public governance and social services.
Questions for debate:
 How could regions and cities build a culture of entrepreneurship, while attracting and
retaining innovative companies and individual researchers within their regions and
cities? What are the first results of the Commission's ICT Innovation Voucher Scheme, in
which several regions (including CoR members) participated?
 What is the role of local and regional administrations in promoting digital and egovernment approaches and increasing digital skills? What is the potential of the
European Structural and Investment Funds in this field? How to valorise and disseminate
the expertise of innovative strategies, mostly developed at a very local level?
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