In order for the European Union (EU) to better compete in the digital economy it may need to have a more cohesive strategy. Earlier this month, the EU discussed its plans to encourage its member countries to work together to create a single market for the online economy.
The EU's vision to become more competitive as a region may entail setting up unified rules that cover issues such as e-commerce, broadband spectrum, courier and parcel delivery rates, telecoms matters, and a revision of intellectual property rules. A major challenge in the EU for many companies is over-regulation and incompatible rules across the region.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "[m]any European policy makers say the region’s homegrown Internet companies haven’t made the big leagues at least in part because of a patchwork of tax, copyright and e-commerce rules that have stunted their growth. They also point to allegedly unfair business practices by U.S.-based competitors" such as Google.
The European Commission's recent antitrust statement of objections against Google has made some people claim that the EU is acting in a protectionists manner to bolster home grown companies. While there may or may not be some truth to these allegations, the bottom line is that all entities whether they are digital focused or not, must abide by the rules and regulations of the countries in which they operate.
Recently, the EU's Competitiveness Council, which gathers European Ministers in charge of economic and industrial affairs, issued its “Conclusions on the digital transformation of European industry”. The Competitive Council's conclusions discussed the EU's recent progress regarding the digital transformation of EU industry and expressed members states' interests and priorities for future action. Some of the conclusions touch upon the need to develop IT standards for 5G wireless communications, cloud computing, Big Data, the Internet of Things, and interoperability between platforms and technologies.
These conclusions further emphasized the "importance of ensuring that European standards....are established in coordination with international standards and globally recognised technical specifications and, where possible, promoted as international standards. This is particularly so in such areas as data formats, digital documents and signatures, pan-European e-Procurement, accounting in digital environment and cross-border data exchange...."
The bottom line is that the EU is working feverishly to catch up with other regions of the world such as Silicon Valley and the United States that are perceived to be leaders in the digital economy. While it may take years for the EU to create and then implement a coherent digital economy strategy, its business and political leaders along with its regulatory bodies have recently acknowledged the importance of these issues. Therefore, it leads me to believe that the EU will utilize whatever tools at its disposal to be an active participant in the future growth of the international digital ecosystem.
Copyright 2015 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
