On 11 January 2021, the EP Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee adopted the opinion report from MEP Christel Schaldemose with all compromise amendments adopted. It calls for more precise criteria on data altruism when it is done for general interest, and on B2B (business to business) and B2G (business to governments) data sharing.
IMCO delivered an opinion report on the issue of the EU Data Strategy, which has been proposed by the European Commission in 2020 and which pushed for more data flows in the EU. A positive outcome of this new regulation for the sector is that it aims at enabling better cross-border sharing and that data should flow more easily in the Internal Market, also pushing for better access to data. The lead Committee of the European Parliament on this is ITRE (Industry Committee), which is set to adopt its report on January 28, but of course the opinion report of the IMCO Committee is very important.
Among the compromise amendments adopted, several deserve close attention from FEBIS. Compromise amendment 1 d “Stresses that
it is important to strike the right balance between clearly defined rules, whilst making room for innovation and rapid responses to new technologies when establishing genuine common European data
spaces; calls on the Commission to address fragmentation in the single market and unjustified diverging rules in Member States in order to ensure the development of common data spaces in the
EU”.
Also to be noted is the claim from IMCO MEP Members to push for more B2B and B2G data sharing, bearing in mind Compromise
Amendment 4 3 b that „Considers that voluntary business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) data sharing and participation in data spaces should be incentivised,
while mandatory access to relevant data could also be envisaged to prevent market failures; highlights that the sharing of data should enhance competition and encourages the Commission
to ensure a level playing field in the single market for data; underlines that the Digital Markets Act should introduce new tools and lay down criteria to identify gatekeepers and provide
provisions to prevent these economic entities from creating market barriers, including with regard to data sharing with the relevant stakeholders; asks the Commission to particularly take into
consideration the issues of confidentiality and protection of trade secrets in the context of the Data Economy;”
FEBIS Regulatory Committee will go on following discussions taking place on the EU Data Strategy and liaise with relevant MEPs to communicate our position, together with the joint paper adopted with our industry partner ACCIS in 2020.
Source: FEBIS
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