EU Leaders’ meeting in Sofia: completing a trusted Digital Single Market for the benefit of all

Ten days ahead of the entry into application of the General Data Protection rules, the European Commission is today presenting a set of concrete actions that European leaders can take to protect citizens’ privacy and make the EU’s Digital Single Market a reality before the end of 2018.

The Communication presented today is the Commission’s contribution to the informal discussions that EU leaders will hold in Sofia tomorrow. The Commission believes that it is in the shared interest of all Member States to manage the digital transformation by following the European approach, which links investment in digital innovation with strong data protection rules. This will allow the EU to effectively deal with the challenges of an increasingly data-based global economy. Three years after adopting the Digital Single Market strategy, the Digital Single Market has progressed, with 12 legislative proposals agreed by the European Parliament and Council out of the 29 tabled by the Commission since May 2015. Major new laws on data protection, cybersecurity, and the end of mobile roaming charges are either already in place or will be in a matter of days or weeks. Member States must now ensure these agreed rules work in practice. The benefits of the Digital Single Market are already being enjoyed by citizens, for instance through a four-fold increase in data use when travelling to other Member States thanks to the abolition of roaming charges. Altogether the Digital Single Market could contribute €415 billion per year to our economy and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. all other pending Digital Single Market proposals should be agreed by the end of 2018, in line with the call of the European Council of October 2017. These include, for instance, the modernisation of EU copyright rules to protect creators online better and facilitate the access to European works across borders. Further details are available in the press release as well as a number of factsheets: on the progress of the Digital Single Market, the Commission actions since 2015 as well as stronger privacy rules for electronic communications.