Tech, Digital Rights Stakeholders Ready Priorities for New EU Term
5G rollout and a fully digital single market are top priorities for Europe's tech sector as the European Commission and Parliament begin a new five-year term, stakeholders said in interviews and statements. Other items on their wish-lists include fair competition rules and a push for faster deployment of fiber networks. The new EU term could also bring a bruising battle over internet intermediary liability.
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Governments will try to boost Europe's digital competitiveness, telecom ministers said in June 7 conclusions. Digitalization is "essential for the competitiveness economic development, cohesion and security of Europe. Addressing opportunities and challenges related to digitalisation is ... a most urgent task." Ministers aim to make Europe a world leader in artificial intelligence and 5G.
Maintaining prior regulation of access to networks is "something that remains fundamental," said European Competitive Telecommunications Association Director General Luc Hindryckx. ECTA sees a worrying trend toward enacting different regulations by EU members. For 5G, governments should concentrate on handling spectrum auctions in a way that maintains or increases competition among operators, and the EC should ensure administrations don't view auctions simply as moneymakers, he said.
One key message is the telecom sector should remain highly diversified, Hindryckx said. EU institutions should quickly grasp how fifth generation will evolve and how rapidly operators need to respond to new business models, he said, saying the more players, the more verticals can innovate. Governments should act "to improve the conditions for coverage and connectivity by improving the investment environment through lower spectrum fees and siting costs," GSMA said.
The Fibre-to-the-Home Council Europe intends to raise the issue of copper switch-off because the situation varies considerably among member countries, said Director General Erzsebet Fitori. Deployment of fiber networks will be accelerated only with high-level political commitment to full-fiber infrastructure, she said. FTTH wants to make actual rollout faster, simpler and cheaper. Fitori pressed governments to bar "fake fiber" advertisements in which "fiber" or "fiber speeds" are used in ads for copper-based broadband, saying they could harm takeup and the business case for fiber itself.
DigitalEurope wants EU members to "allocate a significantly higher budget" for the Digital Europe program, saying 5G, IoT and Cloud "are turning-point technologies that could deliver socio-economic benefits" worth more than 110 billion euros ($124 billion). By 2025, it said, every household should have 4G access.
Several issues discussed in last term remain on the table, said European Digital Rights Senior Policy Adviser Jan Penfrat. An e-privacy regulation intended to replace the 2003 privacy and electronic communication directive was left in "trilogue" talks among the three EU bodies, with ministers yet to take a position, he said. The past Romanian EU presidency planned to finalize its e-privacy text by the end of its term but now it's "unclear how the file will proceed" under the new Finnish Presidency and Parliament, said IAB Europe
Everyone expects the new EC to update the e-commerce directive, which covers internet intermediary liability, Penfrat said: It will be a "huge battle." EDRi will likely advocate for keeping as much of the current liability exemptions as possible because eliminating them would force companies to monitor and censor online content. Updating the directive "could provide legal clarity and strengthen the EU digital single market," the Computer & Communications Industry Association recommended to the Finnish presidency, which took office July 1. CCIA backed keeping the liability protection regime and prohibition against general monitoring.