The Race for Digitising Europe

Regulation, security, and competition policies fit for the digital future.

If we consider the battles defining the quest for global digital leadership, Europe seems to have not even fully entered them. There is no European global digital platform for e-commerce, social networking, or other digital services (the only exception is Spotify) and with the departure of the UK, the EU lost an economy with a significant digital innovation capacity. However, the potential held by these internet giants is far-reaching, as they capture and trade one of the most important commodities of today: data. Not only are digital platforms among the most valuable companies in the world, but they are also; re-shaping entire chains of production value and our consumer habits, redefining public spaces, and impacting the efforts of the ecological transition. Digital sovereignty is therefore something that needs to be integrated and conceived as a priority for policymaking at the European Union level.

And yet, the EU still struggles with outdated instruments and approaches (fines, competition rules not adapted to the speed of the internet and not in line with new consumer habits and wants) and even with unclear definitions of the platforms, it wishes to regulate.

The working group will thus focus on how the EU could start governing global digital platforms, finding the right mix between industrial policies, regulations, and anti-trust instruments with the view to maximize the welfare of European citizens and consumers and use disruptive innovations to make European firms more competitive. The Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act and GDPR will be a crucial part of the discussion. But the conversation should also cover investments: both in new, public European platforms and in start-ups that will create services for those platforms.

Speakers

Ginevra Bruzzone, Senior Fellow LUISS School of European Political Economy and Competition policy

Simona Panseri, Senior Director, Communications and Public Affairs Southern Europe and EMEA at Google

Antonios Nestoras, Head of Policy and Research, ELF

Ernest J. Wilson III, Former Dean of Annenberg School of Communication

Francesco Bonfiglio, Chief Executive Officer at GAIAX

Gerard Pogorel, Prof. Emeritus, Institut Polytechnique de Paris

Francesco Cappelletti, Policy and Research Officer, ELF

Connected Online:

Erik Bohlin, Professor, Chalmers University