DATA GOVERNANCE ACT

On 1 October the EU Member States agreed on a negotiating mandate on the proposal for a Data Governance Act (DGA). The objective of the Act will be to increase the trust in data intermediation services and promote data sharing across the EU.

The DGA will complement the Open Data Directive from 2019 which does not cover the data protected by intellectual property rights, trade secrets and personal data.

The DGA will also create a new business model for data intermediation services. These services could take the form of a digital platform in which companies will be able to share their data without the fear of misuse or a loss of competitive advantage. The proposal will encourage the companies to make data voluntarily available for the common good.

The European Data Innovative Board will be a new structure which will advise the Commission in enhancing the interoperability of data intermediation services and ensuring the consistent practice in processing requests for public-sector data.

Next steps:

The Council presidency will start negotiations with the European Parliament. Both the Council and the European Parliament will need to agree on the final text.

More information can be found here.

 

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT – RELEVANT PROCEDURE FILES

Roaming Regulation

On 27 September the ITRE Committee voted on amendments and the compromise amendments on the Roaming Regulation review. The adopted amendments provide a better reflection on the objectives of the proposal. It is recognized that the Commission should conduct regular reviews to monitor market development and potentially make legislative proposals where necessary and/or appropriate. The Commission shall, after consulting BEREC, submit biennial reports to the European Parliament and the Council.

The amendments can be found here.

Next steps:

14 October 2021 - vote in the ITRE Committee.

Digital Services Act

On 27 September the IMCO Committee considered the amendments tabled to the Digital Service Act proposal. The amendments highlight the need to clarify the liability regime and the notice and takedown mechanism, especially for online marketplaces, to protect consumers and strengthen SMEs; to establish stricter rules on advertising and recommender systems, as well as to ensure the effective enforcement of the Regulation.

The amendments can be found here.

Next steps:

27 October 2021 - the consideration of the compromise amendments.

 

Digital Markets Act

On 27 September the IMCO Committee considered the amendments tabled to the Digital Markets Act. The amendments aim to ensure that the scope should be fair and balanced, while at the same time focused on restoring contestability and competition in the digital market. Several amendments focus on issues such as designation of gatekeepers and its flexibility to react to new ones, new obligations and prohibitions for gatekeepers, the interoperability of services, and the role of competent national authorities, governance and enforcement.

The amendments can be downloaded from here.

Next steps: In the coming weeks - the consideration of the compromise amendments.

2030 Digital Decade

The European Commission presented to the ITRE Committee the proposal for a Decision establishing the 2030 Policy Programme - Path to a Digital Decade.

The presentation can be found here.

 

BEREC

New BEREC Chair

On 30 September the BEREC Board of Regulators elected the BEREC Chair for 2023, Konstantinos Masselos – the president of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT, Greece).  In 2022, Konstantinos Masselos will serve as a Vice-Chair and the incoming BEREC Chair 2023. The other elected Vice-Chairs are Emmanuel Gabla (ARECP, France) Klaus Steinmaurer (RTR, Austria) together with Michel Van Bellinghen (BIPT, Belgium) as the outgoing BEREC Chair. They will support Annemarie Sipkes (ACM, The Netherlands) - the BEREC Chair 2022. Together with the representative of participants without voting rights Pål Wien Espen (Nkom, Norway) the BEREC Chair and Vice-Chairs will compose the Mini-Board.

More information can be found here.     

Four-lateral Summit

On 29 September BEREC hosted the four-lateral summit in which BEREC, EaPeReg, REGULATEL and EMERG discussed the ways of strengthening the regional cooperation between the EU Member States.

More information can be found here.

CYBERSECURITY

On 1 October the European Cybersecurity Month kicked off under the motto ‘Think Before U Click'. The European Commission and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) will organise conferences, workshops, training sessions, presentations, webinars and online campaigns in order to promote cybersecurity among citizens and businesses. Cyber awareness is one of the angles of the EU Cybersecurity Strategy announced in December 2020.

More information can be found here.
The dedicated website can be found here

BETTER INTERNET FOR CHILDREN STRATEGY

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the roadmap on a new European strategy for a Better Internet for Children Strategy (BIK Strategy). The BIK Strategy follows the proposed set of digital principles in the 2030 Digital Compass. It aims, on one hand, to maximize the opportunities of the digital technologies and, on the other - to protect the well-being of the children online. The BIK Strategy will also call on the tech  industry to further raise the standards to address the child related risks such as child sexual abuse (see the article below), cyberbullying, cyber threats, etc.

The stakeholders can provide their feedback here.

Feedback period:

30 September 2021 - 28 October 2021 (midnight Brussels time).

COMBATING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

The European Commission launched a public consultation on the combined evaluation roadmap/inception impact assessment regarding the Commission's proposal to review the Directive 2011/93/EU on combating the sexual abuse.

The stakeholders can provide their feedback here.

Feedback period:

28 September 2021 - 26 October 2021 (midnight Brussels time).