Buying clothes online, booking your holidays, watching last blockbuster, e-learning, playing games online… Each of these activities could be executed online.
With more than 513 millions of citizens in the EU, the EU market is an attractive market for companies. The EU has an ambition to create a Unique Market for goods and services and in the European Union. In the numeric world, The Digital single Market (DSM) follows the same objective and which was adopted on the 6 May 2015.
The Digital Single Market is defined by European Commission as:
One in which the free movement of persons, services and articles is ensured and where the individuals and businesses can seamlessly access and engage in online activities under conditions of fair competition, and a high level of consumer and personal data protection, irrespective of their nationality or place of residence.”
In fact, the European Digital Single Market is an integrated and harmonized market without internal borders. It is composed by e-marketing, e-commerce and telecommunications. The DSM represents, for the European Commission one of its 10 political priorities. This priority was taken over by EU Commissioner Phil Hogan at the Agridata Summit 2018 in Cordoba, Spain: “Establishing a real single market with minimal obstacles to work across boundaries is therefore essential to unlocking the substantial economies of scale the digital sector can achieve”, he said.
This market should establish an equal access to goods and services, create a trustworthy environment for citizens and online companies and impulse new digital projects. Furthermore, some experts estimated a gain of 415 billion euros per year for the European economy and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs due to the DSM and the transformation of our public services.
The DSM lies upon three pillars: Access, Environment and Economy & Society.
- Better numeric and technologies Access for consumers and businesses;
- Creating the adequate environment to develop digital networks and innovative services;
- Using digital economy potential of each citizens and businesses, maximising digital potential of Economy and Society.
Since the launch of the DSM, the European Commission has already issued 35 actions announced. Thenceforth, the Commission tries to unveil new challenges and technologies to stay in phase with technological developments, particularly not to be outdone in a new digital world. The European Commission estimated that a new issue in DSM WAS cybersecurity:
“There is a need for cyber-secure infrastructure across all parts of the EU so that everyone, everywhere, can enjoy high-speed connectivity safely. New strong EU rules for personal data protection have already been agreed upon. There is a need to make sure that non-personal data can be freely provided by e-Health services. Providing high-performance computing with a digitally skilled workforce will help you make the most of the economy. All these areas are essential for Europe’s digital future.”
Otherwise, the DSM is a target for cyber-attacks. This finding was call back by Jean-Claude Juncker in Tallinn Digital Summit, 29 September 2017:
“Cyber-attacks know no borders, but our response capacity differs very much from one country to the other, creating loopholes where vulnerabilities attract even more the attacks. The EU needs more robust and effective structures to ensure strong cyber resilience and respond to cyber-attacks. We do not want to be the weakest links in this global threat.”
Each cyberattack can impact the DSM, especially because of cybercriminal’s weapons: computer is becoming a democratic tool. The European Commission has decided to establish a European cybersecurity strategy and has created The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) which assists Member States cybersecurity authorities in order to enhance the EU protection against cyber-attacks.
These measures should strengthen the cybersecurity level in the European Union and allow the establishment of cybersecurity certifications.
Moreover, ENISA should assist Member States to tackle cybersecurity threats and attacks. All cyberattacks affect the DSM. The European regulation in this context allows a global harmonisation and a real cybersecurity framework, common to all Member States and may improve the cybersecurity level. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was a first step in this process. Now, the European Union needs to find specialists workers, European strategies and Europeans legislations to live up to his claims.
However, Brexit questions DSM:
- Which role for United-Kingdom in DSM?
- What conditions for will UK to stay in DSM?
- Does Brexit risk to weaken the DSM?
Only time will answer these questions.
Manon DANSAC
Master 2 Cyberjustice promotion 2018-2019
Sources:
“Shaping the Digital Single Market”, on europea website https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/policies/shaping-digital-single-market#ThePillars
Speech by Commissioner Phil Hogan at Agridata Summit 2018, Cordoba, Spain, 26 November 2018 on europea website https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2014-2019/hogan/announcements/speech-commissioner-phil-hogan-agridata-summit-2018cordoba-spain_en
“The EU and the Digital Single Marketâ”, June 2017 on publications. europa website http://publications.europa.eu/webpub/com/factsheets/digital/en/
“Key messages of President Juncker to Heads of State or Government in Tallinn on the State of Play of the Digital Single Market”, 29 September 2017, on Europa website https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/bg/speech_17_3605
