European data strategy

The Digital Era and the use of data is a reality and we cannot deny it, as digital technologies have invaded all the fields that make up our daily lives: personal, family, work, social and commercial.

The European Commission is creating a very ambitious strategy to put Europe at the forefront of the regulation of new technologies and data protection.

Origin, object and purpose of the Strategy

The European Commission published in this year 2020 its European Data Strategy, which seeks to reflect the best of Europe, which in its own words translates into: A more open, fair, diverse, democratic and secure Europe.

The purpose of this European Strategy is focused on providing citizens with better decision-making criteria in the business and public sector, seeking to empower societies in the responsible, conscious and secure treatment of their data. Its objective is to create a single European space that is open to data from all over the world, with high standards of guarantee and protection, which will help to generate economic and business growth, with people at its core.

We have all realized in the last year the importance of a good treatment of our personal information, as we have changed our ways of producing, consuming and living, since we do everything through smart devices that allow us to develop our lives in a more comfortable, easier and faster way, although all this without being exempt from violating our own data.

It is for this last reason that it is very important to design a single European data space governed by the principles of fairness, practicality and clarity, so as to increase European technological sovereignty, thus benefiting European companies.

Key measures to be adopted by the EU

The key measures to implement this European Data Strategy consist of:

— Create a new legislative framework for the governance of common European data spaces, to be given in the fourth quarter of 2020;

— Facilitating large volumes of information for its reuse in the public sector, and promoting its use by SMEs;

— Create a data standard to encourage data sharing between the public and private sectors, which would come into effect in 2021;

— Analyze the importance of data in the digital economy, as well as review the policy context for its implementation.

In addition to these key measures, the European Commission together with the Member States will invest effort and money (between EUR 4 billion and EUR 6 billion) in a high-impact project on data spaces in Europe, together with federated cloud computing infrastructures, so that both companies and the public sector can advance their digital transformation.

Cloud services

Aiming for the second quarter of 2022, the European Commission has developed a regulatory code for cloud computing, which will provide a set of codes of conduct and certification for the cloud in the areas of security, quality of services, energy efficiency, data protection and data portability.

In direct relation to the above, the Commission will favor the development of common European standards and requirements for public sector procurement of services related to data processing, eventually leading to a cloud services market for European users, both in the public and private sectors, which could materialize in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Empowering people in relation to their data

Empowering individuals in relation to the data they themselves generate is a challenge because what we want to achieve is to give greater power to individuals so that they have more detailed control over their personal information, using means, tools and actions, thus creating the new concept of “personal data spaces” and this finds its basis in the right to portability of art. 20 of the RGPD.

Common European Data Spaces

These new common European data spaces will be developed in strategic economic sectors and areas of public interest.

To this end, these common spaces will have large data repositories, as well as technical tools for using and exchanging data, under common governance mechanisms.

The European common data spaces will focus on the following sectors:

Industrial: increased competitiveness and industrial performance

Environmental: through the European Green Pact, with regard to climate change, zero pollution, biodiversity, deforestation, etc.

Mobility: intelligent transportation that shares mobility-related databases.

Health: advances in prevention, early detection and cure of diseases, as well as improving the effectiveness and accessibility of health systems.

Financial: improving innovation, transparent markets and sustainable finance.

Energy: actions aimed at decarbonizing the energy system.

Agriculture: improving the farm through good data management.

Public Administration: to improve transparency and accountability, the fight against corruption, compliance with regulations, as well as to implement the use of “gov tech” (technology at the service of public administration), “reg tech” (technology at the service of regulation) and “legal tech” (technology at the service of law) applications.

Qualifications: by the different educational levels and the needs of the labor market.

With this Strategy, the EU wants to show that the future lies in good data processing, which, through the use of tools and mechanisms, will provide us with the greatest benefit in the crucial areas of the life of every European.