A revolutionary plan to make Europe into a single digital market by breaking technology barriers hampering business on the internet has been set in motion.
The Digital Single Market Strategy expects to deliver key targets within 18 months that will smash technology barriers between European Union nations.
These barriers, says European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, are stopping European consumers from buying cheaper goods and services from a different EU country from where they live.
Official statistics show only 15% of online shoppers buy from other countries and only 7% of small businesses trade outside the borders of their home countries.
The commission wants to introduce a Digital Single Market which tears down regulatory walls and merges 28 national markets in to a single one.
Consumer rights
The result, says the report introducing the strategy, could contribute £307 billion a year to the EU economy and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
“I see this strategy as the groundwork for Europe’s online future,” said Juncker.
“This means pan-continental digital networks, entrepreneurs setting up new businesses to take advantage of the new market and consumers and businesses being able to seek out the best deals wherever they are in Europe.
The commission has published a raft of recommendations and intentions.
For consumers, these include new rights that will cover the entire continent.
Businesses will see the cost of parcel delivery come down. Geo-blocking will be banned – this is when a company stops customers in one region accessing cheaper deals in another region by blocking their access to web sites.
Copyright initiatives
The strategy will also look at issues that stop TV broadcasters and telecoms companies from providing their services across borders.
Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip said: “This is an ambitious and necessary series of initiatives targeting issues where the EU can make a real difference.
“They will ready Europe to benefit from a digital future by giving consumers and businesses online freedoms to profit from a huge internal market. The initiatives are related and must be delivered rapidly to create jobs and growth. This is a starting point, not the finishing line.“
Other issues to be tackled include copyright law and removing illegal content from European web sites, a consumer protection directive for the EU and setting up a regulator to manage cloud computing.
