Digital Single Market getting concrete
4 May 2018

Within the initiative of the Digital Single Market (DSM), The European Commission has recently released 3 communications: one on Data, one on eHealth and one on Artificial Intelligence.

COCIR welcomes the European Commission’s efforts to through those communications and is eager to continue to contribute to their efforts.

The communication on Data, which is a sort of umbrella document, also tackles briefly the communications on eHealth and Artificial Intelligence but also the regulation proposal on free flow of non-personal data and the revision of the Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSId).

Data, what’s more after the GDPR

Building on the data protection legislation in force (including the GDPR), the European Commission is now proposing a package of measures as a key step towards a common data space in the EU - a seamless digital area with the scale that will enable the development of new products and services based on data. The measures put forward along with this Communication include: 

·       a proposal for a review of the Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI Directive);

·       an update of the Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information; and 

·       guidance on sharing private sector data. 

In this Communication the European Commission presents initiatives that will make it easier for businesses and the public sector to access and re-use data coming from different sources, sectors and disciplines in the EU.

The regulation proposal on free flow of non-personal data seeks to ensure the free movement of data other than personal data within the Union by laying down rules relating to data localisation requirements, the availability of data to competent authorities and data porting for professional users.

Digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market

The present Communication sets out how the EU can help meet the objectives of these Council Conclusions. The Conclusions (8/12/2017) invite Member States and the Commission to work together on a range of issues and seize the potential of digital technologies in health and care and call specifically for the implementation in the health sector of existing EU legislation on the protection of personal data, electronic identification and information security.

The European Commission set out its intention to take further action in three pillars:

1)   citizens' secure access to and sharing of health data across borders;

2)    better data to advance research, disease prevention and personalised health and care;

3)   digital tools for citizen empowerment and person-centred care.

Maximising the benefits of Artificial Intelligence

The EU strategy on Artificial Intelligence strategy has three dimensions: boosting Europe's technology and industrial capacity, preparing for socio-economic changes, and ensuring an appropriate ethical and legal framework. One of the main goals is to democratise Artificial Intelligence technology, in order to support not only Artificial Intelligence start-ups but also Artificial Intelligence users, including non-tech companies of any size.

COCIR and its member companies will further review those communications and provide constructive and concrete feed-back based on our expertise and competencies to support the European Commission.