EU Digital Roadmap Wins Support from Industry, Rights Groups, With Reservations

A new digital agenda is the “first flagship that is leaving the port” in Europe’s effort to jump-start its economy and catch up with global competitors, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Wednesday. Part of the EU 2020 strategy, the plan focuses on seven priorities, including the promise of broadband for all by 2013 and access to increased online content through changes in copyright licensing and online payment regimes. It won praise, and a few complaints, from industry and rights groups.

The goals are a digital single European market and increases in Internet trust and security, interoperability of information and communication technology products, Internet speeds, investment in research and development, digital literacy and e-inclusion, and the use of ICT to deal with climate change, an aging population and other challenges.

Europe is falling behind other media services markets in what consumers can access and in business models that could build the economy, the European Commission said. That’s because the most successful online companies, such as Amazon and Google, are outside the EU, online payment transactions are still too cumbersome, consumers and businesses aren’t sure of their legal rights on the Internet and “Europe is far from having a single market for telecom services."

There are four times as many legitimate music downloads in the U.S. as in the EU because of fragmented markets and an absence of licensed offerings, the EC said. It plans to open up access to content by, among other things, proposing legislation this year on orphan works and on pan-European licensing of online content, it said. Also planned are reviews of the data protection and electronic signatures directive, and proposals to update the e-commerce directive and to require countries to move to the single euro payment area by a specific date.

Another key issue is speeding up broadband to support new services, the EC said. It’s calling for universal broadband coverage by 2013, and 30 Mbps coverage for all by 2020, with at least half of households subscribing to broadband at 100 Mbps. By 2015, 50 percent of Europe’s population should be shopping online and 20 percent using cross-border Internet services, it said. Regular Internet use should rise from 60 percent to 75 percent by 2015, with half of citizens using online public services, it said. By 2020, total annual public spending on ICT R&D should reach $13.5 billion, it said.

The agenda is ambitious but not unrealistic, Kroes told reporters. Asked whether there will be money to pay for it, she said the EC believes the strategy is one of the keys to boosting Europe’s economy. Public-private partnerships are part of the solution, she said. It’s a matter of mindset, Kroes said: Europe’s competitors are very much in the lead.

The most urgent copyright challenge is protecting compensation for authors and other artists, to make cross-border offerings possible, Kroes said. It’s difficult to explain to Europeans why it’s easier to buy online from the U.S. than from their neighboring countries, she said. Tackling consumer fears of the Internet is another major issue, she said. The agenda proposes a more coordinated response to cyberattacks and better data protection rules, the EC said.

Plan ‘Quite Encouraging'

Industry organizations welcomed the agenda, with reservations. The EC must ensure that basic single-market principles such as non-discrimination and access to bottleneck infrastructure at fair prices are applied uniformly across Europe, said the European Competitive Telecommunications Association. Relaxing competition rules, or letting dominant providers set the price of access to next-generation access networks, would keep new entrants out of the market, it said.

The cable industry’s 18 percent growth in video-on-demand revenue signals more than just good business, said Managing Director Caroline Van Weede of Cable Europe. Europeans are more than willing to pay for good, legal content over the best networks possible, so “why not just focus on promoting digital content” through a significant copyright, she said.

Commercial broadcasters said the debate isn’t about the pipes but about the content that flows through them. “It is great content, not software engineering, which makes the Digital Agenda attractive to European consumers,” said President Philippe Delusinne of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe. The EC’s plans to improve collective-rights management, including by making it more open, and its increased emphasis on infringement may resolve some of the industry’s longstanding concerns, the association said.

The Association for Competitive Technology said the agenda will give small and midsized companies better access to public procurement, the standardization process and a strong intellectual property (IP) system, allowing them to develop new digital services and products. The Business Software Alliance, however, complained that the agenda doesn’t go far enough to protect IP rights. “We would have expected to see more recognition for the essential protections provided by patents and copyright,” said Senior Director of Government Affairs Francisco Mingorance. Overlooking intellectual capital could drive away investment in technology, innovation and jobs, he said.

French rights group La Quadrature du Net said the agenda avoids the worst on cybercrime, but “some very ambiguous wording remains.” Allowing countries to fight child pornography through measures to remove and prevent the viewing of harmful content could lead to networkwide blocking of websites or merely to filters installed and controlled by end-users, it said. Nevertheless, the plans recognizes users’ prerogatives better and takes a “timid step” toward user rights by including goals for revamping collective copyright management to reduce entertainment companies’ control of the circulation of cultural works, La Quadrature said. The plan “reveals intense pressure coming from corporate lobbies” but is “quite encouraging overall,” it said.

The EC was right to focus on speeding deployment of fast and ultra-fast fixed and wireless broadband access networks and reinforcing incentives for private investment, said Director Michael Bartholomew of the European Telecommunication Network Operators’ Association. The agenda “echoes many of the key concerns expressed by the industry which will now need to be translated into practice,” he said.