Europe’s economic future is digital
EESC adopts comprehensive package on connecting Europe
At its plenary of 25-26 January the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted a comprehensive package on the so called Gigabit Society, aimed at improving and finalizing digital connections in whole Europe and thereby strengthening the Digital Single Market.
In its opinion on the European Gigabit Society, the EESC welcomes the European Commission’s initiatives regarding the European Electronic Communications Code, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), the 5G action plan and the support scheme for public authorities wanting to offer free Wi-Fi access (WiFi4EU). The EESC agrees with the Strategic Objectives for 2025, which it regards as ambitious but realistic. “A Europe-wide, modern digital single market is important in order to improve Europe’s competitiveness, make it sustainable and thus create economic growth and jobs”, said rapporteur Ulrich Samm. “We must be aware that this does not happen in a vacuum, but against a backdrop of strong competition from the US and Asia.”
Digitalisation needs clear guidance and financial support
“The EU needs to guide the procedure in order to guarantee coherent, pan-European modernisation in support of the Digital Single Market”, said Mr Samm, reminding that the full economic and social benefits of this digital transformation will only be achieved if Europe-wide, very high-capacity networks can be deployed. In order to cover remote areas and guarantee access across society, the EESC calls for public support schemes.
The EC’s WiFi4EU initiative goes in this direction, providing funds for free internet access hotspots in public places such public buildings, squares, parks, hospitals, etc. In its opinion Internet connectivity in local communities, the EESC welcomes this initiative as it will deliver benefits in terms of accessibility and economic growth. “Together with the single digital identity – proposed by the EESC – this would have considerable impact on strengthening the sentiment of European citizenship and overcoming digital poverty”, was the conviction expressed by rapporteur Emilio Fatovic. The EESC, however, considers the 120 million Euro budget allocated for this strategic project as inadequate and has called for it to be substantially increased and complemented through public-private partnerships.
EESC calls for high quality and targeted financial support
Given the rapid progress of digital technology, new installations could quickly become obsolete. In order to make Wifi4EU more dynamic, long-term and sustainable, the EESC proposed to set goals for social and technological development. High-quality WiFi services must be installed over the next three years with a minimum connection speed of 100 megabit/s.
Mr Fatovic criticised the criteria outlined by the Commission for the allocation of funds as “unclear and contradictory”. The Committee proposed to set a maximum amount of funding for each country in advance, and to reserve 20% of the budget for the economically and digitally less developed areas so that in particular islands, mountainous, and peripheral zones and areas that have been exposed to natural disasters can get the most needed digital investments.
While the EESC in general agrees with the Commission’s approach on connecting Europe, it voices some further concerns over some of the proposals and suggests several changes:
TEN/612 European Electronic Communication Code
COM: Due to the rapid development and changes, an update of the regulatory framework for electronic communications is required. The goal is to ensure better connectivity for all individuals and businesses by making investment in new, high-quality infrastructure throughout the EU more attractive.
The new directive should also help achieve the following objectives:
- Increased competition and predictability for investments
- Better use of radio-frequencies
- Stronger consumer protection
- Safer online environment for users and fairer rules for all players
The EESC’s comments:
- The EESC would rather propose a framework regulation to be applied directly, immediately and uniformly in all MS.
- It also criticises the fact that many important matters have been left to the Member States to decide, rather than legislating for a higher level of consumer protection.
- It regrets that in this new regulation the directive on privacy has been left out of the package, as it would guarantee the main interests of network users.
- Further doubts on the proposals include:
- The replacement of services or even the abolishment of requirements such as public payphones, comprehensive directories and directory enquiry services
- The removal of pooling costs, leaving social assistance costs to national budgets, in fact to taxpayers
- The removal of some regulatory requirements, e.g. the revocation of national regulators’ powers to impose retail price regulation directly on operators with significant market power (SMP) or certain provisions on contracts, transparency, equivalent access for users with disabilities, etc.
- Moreover, the proposal is not in line with the Council’s wish for a European code of rights for users of electronic communications services providing “at EU level a simple, user-friendly tool bringing together all the rights of users of electronic communications services in the areas of ICT and consumer protection.”
TEN/613 Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications
On the BERC the EESC
- advocates increasing the responsibilities and powers of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), turning it into a genuine regulatory authority, able to take a forward-looking approach and provide appropriate regulation for new, pan-EU or global information services, which are currently either largely unregulated or subject to unclear regulatory frameworks (M2M, OTT, etc.) or binding pan-European assignment procedures for specific bands
TEN/615 5G for Europe: An action plan
The EESC calls for improvements to the action plan:
- Procedures need to be standardised and specifications established throughout the 5G project as a prerequisite for fair labour relations, enabling the social partners to carry out an objective assessment of dysfunctions and the progress made towards meeting the objectives.
- Developing digital skills among the general public and the labour force in particular must be a priority for the EU.
