Making the most of the data economy: Vice-President Ansip, Commissioners Moedas and Oettinger meet the European Round Table of Industrialists

This afternoon, Vice-President Ansip, Commissioners Moedas and Oettinger will meet top European business leaders representing the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT).These discussions are a follow-up to the meeting between German Chancellor Merkel, French President Hollande, Commission President Juncker and the ERT which took place on 1 June in Berlin and focused on the creation of a Digital Single Market in Europe – one of the Commission’s top priorities (press conference). Today’s work will help prepare the next meeting between the leaders to be held in Paris this autumn. Vice-President Ansip, Commissioners Moedas and Oettinger will discuss with the ERT the potential of digital and data technologies and how to fully benefit from them. While personal data is covered and protected by EU rules, there are no clear guidelines for other types of data such as business or machine data, anonymised data or aggregated data. As part of its Digital Single Market Strategy, the Commission will propose a European ‘Free flow of data’ initiative in 2016. The Commission will also launch a European Cloud initiative including cloud services certification, contracts, switching of cloud services providers and a research open science cloud. Next discussions will take place in October and will focus on start-ups and connectivity, before the second meeting between President Juncker, President Hollande, Chancellor Merkel, and the ERT in Paris