DIGITALEUROPE applauds adoption of INI report “Towards a Digital Trade Strategy” in INTA Committee

DIGITALEUROPE, the association representing the digital technology industry in Europe, congratulates the International Trade Committee in the European Parliament on adopting the INI Report “Towards a Digital Trade Strategy”, expressing a large cross-party support for an ambitious EU Digital Trade Strategy. We would especially like to thank the rapporteur, Ms Marietje Schaake, for her leadership in advancing on this urgently needed discussion.

It is absolutely crucial for the European Digital Single Market Strategy to be mirrored by a solid plan on the global front. As a global leader in trade services, the EU must assume leadership and advocate ambitious digital standards in free trade agreements before others do. The INI report recognizes the importance of provisions on inter alia source code, encryption, data flows and data localization; encouraging the EU executives to take actions. While the European Commission has already tabled various digital trade provisions in its FTA negotiations, e.g. with Japan and Mexico, we now encourage the Commission to complete its proposals with a concrete and predictable text on data flows and provisions abolishing data localisation. In this respect, the INTA committee has succeeded in illustrating how the right balance can be found in order to both enable digital trade and preserve data protection standards.

DIGITALEUROPE urges the Commission Project Team to follow the advice of the European Parliament to draw up provisions and present concrete, predictable and ambitious proposals for an EU position on cross-border data transfers.