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European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and bloc’s executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager presented plans on how individuals, businesses and European governing bodies could better handle data.
The goal, Breton said at a press briefing in Brussels on Wednesday, was a series of directives to help make Europe the “number 1 data continent of the world” alongside the supremacy of the United States and from China.
The strict privacy rules adopted by the bloc in 2016 would still apply, but with neutral brokers and tools based in the EU to share data, if necessary, supplanting Google, Facebook and others making billions in selling services such as advertisements.
Read more: EU threatens tougher hate speech rules after Facebook meeting
‘Alternative model’
“European data spaces” would be created, where businesses, governments and researchers could store and access “protected” information.
This concept, anchored in a European law on digital governance, would be followed by a law on digital services (DSA) and a law on the digital market (DMA).
The framework would offer an ‘alternative model’ to those operated by ‘big tech platforms’, said Vestager, who wants the DSA to force platforms to disclose ‘hate speech’ and counterfeit products to European regulators and delete them.
The new European law on the digital market would seek, via quantitative and qualitative rules, to curb the “unfair behavior” of the internet giants, to the benefit of “many small and medium-sized businesses,” Breton said.
And existing giants would be required to disclose their algorithms (mathematical formulas) used to recommend content online, Vestager said.
The framework would offer an “ alternative model ” to those operated by “ big tech platforms, ” Vestager said.
Also rules and penalties
Breton insisted the EU would abide by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
“To ensure that data can flow, we need rules that will build confidence,” Breton said, adding that sanctions would be included.
Forcing offenders into “structural separation” would be a last resort, he said.
Large tech companies seeking acquisitions may also be required to notify the European Commission of their intentions, Breton said.
The adoption of the package presented on Wednesday could take a year or two as the Commission negotiates with the various EU member states and the European Parliament.
Read more: What is the GDPR, the European data protection law?
Economic dynamism, expected innovation
The European Commission estimates that the planned measures could increase the annual economic value of data sharing in Europe from € 7 billion ($ 8.3 billion) to around € 11 billion by 2028.
The benefits, he says, could range from personalized health treatments, to a better fight against climate change or to the development of precision farming techniques.
ipj / sri (Reuters, AFP, AP)
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