Commissioner Oettinger in Lisbon, Portugal, to discuss progress on the Digital Single Market

Today Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society Günther H. Oettinger is in Lisbon to discuss Portugal’s performance in digital areas, from broadband coverage to e-government, and the initiatives presented by the Commission to create a Digital Single Market. This morning, he participated in a “going local” event on the Digital Single Market. He strongly supported Portugal’s initiative Industria 4.0 to be launched soon, which will contribute to the Commission’s efforts to help digitise European industry (see press release). He said: “The Portuguese government and the Portuguese industry are taking precisely the right attitude and the right action to make digitisation a success for all enterprises big and small, for job creation, economic growth and social welfare”. He also spoke about the upcoming initiatives under the Digital Single Market strategy: “Our forthcoming initiative on the free flow of data and on building the European data economy will address some crucial questions on issues such as the ownership of machine-generated data; the question on access rights to such data; questions about interoperability and portability in this field. We need to establish clarity about the re-use of all those data that are going to be generated by intelligent autonomous systems, such as robots”. This morning Commissioner Oettinger participated in a hearing at the Portuguese Parliament with Members of the Committees for European Affairs, for Economy, Innovation and Public Works and for Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports. This afternoon, he will meet with Mr Manuel Caldeira Cabral, Portuguese Minister of Economy, Mr João Vasconcelos, Portuguese Secretary of State of Industry, Members of the Portuguese Industrial Strategic Committee and Representatives of Portuguese enterprises. They will discuss how the Digital Single Market can boost Europe and Portugal’s competitiveness and help industries and SMEs grow across national borders.