Members of the European Parliament and EIF Members met European Commission Vice President Ansip in the evening of Tuesday 20 January to hear his initial views on the challenges of a Digital Single Market and future initiatives. Ajit Jaokar, EIF Advisor, shares his observations and analysis from this meeting.
As the ex Prime Minister of Estonia – Andrus Ansip brings a great digital track record at a much needed time for Europe.
Following are the key points of the talk followed by my analysis.
The speech in full is available here.
Photos from the event are available here.
Soon after he took office, Andrus Ansip conducted a tweet chat called #askansip. By all accounts, it was successful (and a first as I recollect). The themes reflected at the EIF event are consistent with the message from the Ansip about the direction of the Digital Agenda.
The Digital agenda and Digital Single market is seen as the Super hero – who will fly in to solve the systemic problems in Europe. The payoff is huge for getting it right: High growth rates, Billions in unlocked value and 100s of new jobs.
But platforms are multi-sided markets. There is no "simple" regulatory fix. Not only should existing barriers be removed, we must also prevent new barriers from appearing. Youth meanwhile are leading the change at a faster pace than fragmented regulation. They are used to a predominantly online life. Also, the growth and dynamism in the App economy and ICT sector provides a possible way out for youth unemployment. All of which are driven by the Digital Single Market.
The single market affects us all: Consumers (trying to buy), Small businesses (trying to expand), digital government (e-invoices, e-procurement, e-signatures), Trust and Security: (consumer rights, data protection rights and cyber-security), Access, Sharing of ideas (Create open systems and remove barriers so as enable the free flow of ideas).
The good news is: All this already exists in Estonia. Apparently, Estonia is the only country in the world where people compete to file taxes! Thus, the future we desire is already here. To paraphrase William Gibson - It is just not uniformly distributed in Europe!