Talking digital - across the Atlantic - Main contents
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of meeting United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in Brussels.
Meeting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker
It builds on the trip I made to Washington in May, which I found highly productive and informative. This took place just a few weeks after we published our strategy for building a Digital Single Market (DSM).
A main reason for my trip was to present the plans to a broad range of senior U.S. Administration officials involved in digital and technology policy and affairs. But it was also a good way to begin to meet people, to learn from U.S. experiences, to compare and contrast - and above all, to find ways for us to work together to further the global digital market.
I say that because the longstanding relationship between Europe and the United States is vitally important in so many ways.
Most people already know that this is the world's most significant partnership in terms of trade and investment.
Fewer people know that it is digital goods and flows that underpin a huge amount of this trade. Digital flows between the United States and Europe are the highest in the world. They are part of today's global trade reality. Along with the growth in internet access, they are driving an increasing amount of transatlantic trade and investment.
Creating a DSM in Europe, a digital-savvy market that is also friendly to U.S. investment, will create growth and opportunities for all companies, not just European ones. That means more opportunities for trade, investment and innovation on a global basis.
My meeting with Secretary Pritzker, as well as my recent U.S. trip, reinforces my view that there is far more that brings us together than divides us. Of course, there are some immediate challenges - and common goals - that we have to tackle, such as ensuring Europeans' personal data protection, cyber-security and internet governance. International collaboration in these areas is essential if the global digital economy is to remain open.
With internet governance, for example, we have to work together to find solutions on the transition of IANA functions towards a multi-stakeholder approach.
As I have said before, the bottom line is that the internet should be open for everyone - and here, I believe that the U.S. and European approaches are not very different. Net neutrality is a good example of where we can - and should - work together. In Europe, we recently reached political consensus to set the principle of net neutrality into EU law; now we have to work on the administrative side to make it happen.
But it is important to look to the future, which is an important pillar of our DSM strategy and this was also a focus of my meeting with Secretary Pritzker.
Both Europe and the United States have the same goals when it comes to maximising the positive impacts of digital technologies in creating jobs and growth, while also making sure that competition and consumers are properly protected.
Investment in innovation; support for startups and the venture capital community; platforms and the sharing economy in general, which have expanded beyond recognition in recent years. These are all highly relevant for the digital economy and society that we are trying to build, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Everything today is based on data, as the foundation of our digital future without borders. We have much to gain by expanding our work together, and finding better ways to do that.
I would like to wish everyone a happy and restful summer. Another blog in the not too distant future.
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